{"id":7149,"date":"2016-11-04T21:18:26","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T15:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kashmir.today\/?p=7149"},"modified":"2016-11-04T21:18:26","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T15:48:26","slug":"rare-viper-creates-panic-jawahar-nagar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=7149","title":{"rendered":"Rare Viper Creates Panic In Jawahar Nagar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Srinagar:<\/strong> In a daring rescue operation, a Levantine viper has been rescued by the Wildlife SOS rescue team in Jawahar Nagar are of summer capital on Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n

After careful examination, the snake was deemed fit and released back into its natural habitat.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAn emergency call from the Wildlife Department alerted the Wildlife SOS Rescue team,\u201d according to a statement issued by Wildlife SOS read. The presence of the viper had created panic in the area.<\/em><\/p>\n

The statement said that a snake was found in Jawahar Nagar, a residential area located in the heart of Srinagar Town.<\/em><\/p>\n

The sight of a snake crawling up into a rain pipe outside their house left the family in a state of shock. Fearing for their safety, they immediately contacted the Wildlife Department, which in turn reported the incident to Wildlife SOS, the statement added.<\/em><\/p>\n

A two-member rescue team, led by Aaliya Mir from Wildlife SOS rushed to the spot and after ensuring that the family were at a safe distance from their reptilian visitor the rescue operation was carried out.<\/em><\/p>\n

According to SOS wildlife, it took almost 30 minutes for the team to carefully extricate the snake out from the pipe.<\/em><\/p>\n

Identified as a Levantine Viper (Micro-viperalebetina), locally known as \u2018gunas\u2019, this particular snake is an uncommon venomous viper species found in parts of Kashmir, Pakistan, Middle East and North Africa.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a dangerous operation as the Levantine viper is highly venomous, requiring us to take precautionary measures,\u201d said Aaliya Mir, Wildlife SOS Manager and Education Officer.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs the residents were apprehensive of the possible presence of more snakes in the area, we decided to scan the entire neighbourhood to allay their fears. There is an abandoned factory nearby and it was possible that being a secluded area, it could have become a refuge for more snakes,\u201d she added.<\/em><\/p>\n

According to Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-founder of Wildlife SOS, \u201cthis exquisite viper is known to survive in elevations between 900-2100 metres in India. They feed mainly on small mammals, lizards, birds and their eggs. Though slow moving, they are capable of fast strikes when provoked and will give out a warning hiss before striking. Being a venomous snake, we had to be extremely careful while conducting the rescue in order to avoid any unnecessary casualties.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The viper has since been released back into its natural habitat, as per Wildlife SOS.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wildlife SOS, a non-profit organization and one of the largest rescue & conservation charities in South Asia, operates in ten wildlife rehabilitation facilities across India, including the world\u2019s largest Sloth Bear Rescue Centre and two Elephant Care Centres, with 23 rescued elephants under their care.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Srinagar: In a daring rescue operation, a Levantine viper has been rescued by the Wildlife SOS rescue team in Jawahar Nagar are of summer capital on Friday. After careful examination, the snake was deemed fit and released back into its natural habitat. \u201cAn emergency call from the Wildlife Department alerted the Wildlife SOS Rescue team,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}