Times Of India :- Snakes in Safe Hands Of Saapwali Bai

 Times Of India 

Vanita Borade from Buldhana, who received the Nari Shakti award on Women's Day, has so far rescued more than 51,000 snakes and released them in their natural habitat. Her mission is to create scientific awareness about the reptiles among the young generation. She has trained more than 25000 girls to become sarpamitra's

Nagpur: As a young girl living in Naigaon (Deshmukh) village of Mehkar tehsil of Buldhana, Vanita Borade used to see fishermen fearlessly sorting. out water snakes from their fishing net and throwing them back into the lake. While wandering in the hills and forests with the Gond, Bhill, Korku and Banjara children, she used to observe them catching snakes, crabs and many other creatures fearlessly.
"I realized that all these animals are scared of us, the humans. If you are fearless, you can easily handle them," said Vanita, fondly known as 'Saanpwali Bai' in the district. On Women's Day, she received 'Nari Shakti' award, the highest civilian honour for women in India.
When she started catching and rescuing snakes some 30 years ago, Vanita was the only woman snake friend or 'Mahila sarpamitra' in India. Today, she is credited for having rescued more than 51,000 snakes and releasing them in their natural habitat.
She has trained more than 25000 girls in this skill and made tens of
thousands of students in the state aware about snakes and their
importance in maintaining environmental balance and food chain.
Vanita observed that tribal people who live in forests are hardly scared of snakes. "While catching crabs from lakes, these kids sometimes find snake in waters. They simply throw them away as if it's nothing but a simple rope. Very rarely they kill snakes. Only thing is that they don't have scientific knowledge about them," said Vanita, who studied scientifically about snakes and made it her mission to make others aware about the reptiles.
"A snake is a non-vegetarian reptile. It can't digest milk. Drinking or sucking milk is not possible for it. Thousands of snakes used to die in India after Nag Panchmi when snake charmers used to visit households and make them drink milk. Fortunately, this practice has now stopped by law," Vanita, who studied forest and criminal laws and started working along with Forest department, said.
According to her, being a snake friend is a big responsibility. "You are not a stuntman or snake charmer. Instead, you need to be a conservator. protector and rescuer for snakes. We follow each and every protocol of forest laws while handling snakes. Our trust has presence in nearly 30 districts of Maharashtra. My people will never take any money to rescue snake. Our mission is different," she proudly said.
Vanita's work has been highly recognized in the wildlife lovers' circle For her, being a woman snake rescuer is challenging as well as fulfilling too. "Creating awareness becomes easy when villagers see a woman. catching a snake. Most women in villages work on fields and forests and they get inspired. Men, who believe they are superior, feel if a woman can handle the reptile then why can't we? And they also try their hands on snakes," she said.
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Her husband D Bhaskar is a lyricist and a performer along with being a farmer. He has written several songs, slogans and created awareness material for Vanita. "Often we visit schools and recite these songs, slogans with students. They get knowledge about poisonous and non-poisonous snakes," she said.
It's not that she has never been bitten by a snake. Dr Prakash Amte came to visit me at Mehkar his visit remains most Marvellous moment for me," she said. She also shares her chat with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ramnath Kovind as she received the Nari Shakti Award. "I told. Modiji about the difficulties we face as snake protectors. He said we need to form a policy for it," she said.

In her own words - "Killing snakes requires no skill, but saving and protecting them need skill, talent and character too. So, let's do a tough job and protect them."on the global level.