“The snake catchers”: the extraordinary life of the tribe, irula. Photo

They are real charmers.

When the circus performers are snake charmers, the audience look at them with a sinking heart. However, few people know that in India there is a tribe that specializiruetsya on catching spectacled cobras, the most dangerous snakes on the planet. These people call themselves irula, they learn from childhood to hunt reptiles, and know all about how to protect yourself from snake bite and as the “milk” of the reptiles, to gather the valuable poison.

In the tribe irula hunt everything from small to large. Since childhood, kids are taught to hunt non-poisonous snakes, for eight years they have allow you to catch more dangerous reptiles, and boys 12-13 years old and did accompany parents who are looking for dens of cobras. Its functions have with each member of the family: the responsibility of men, he catches a snake, but he helped his children and wife. Children excavated the entrance to a snake pit, and the wife sees to it that the reptile is not escaped through the back door.

Before irula kill snakes, because they sold the snake skin, but after the official ban began to catch reptiles to get their valuable venom. Snakes such procedures do not suffer: irula hand over their prey in a special cooperative where the snakes are placed in clay pots and “milked” with regularity every seven days. Poison get due to the fact that the snake is forced to bite the fabric stretched over the Cup. The poison flows into the tank. Over time, you can obtain a few milligrams of the deadly substance. Further it is used for the production of serums and medicines to treat pain.

Snakes in the cooperative, holding two or three weeks, and then released into the wild. In rare cases reptiles are doomed to a life in captivity until his death. The day one family irula can catch about 15 cobras, so the co-op works very well.

It is interesting that irula don’t trust the serum made by physicians. In cases of bites they drink a special decoction of herbs prepared according to old recipe. In addition, this decoction regularly give children to have them from a young age have developed immunity. Irula assure that the tool really saves you from the venom of snakes, as a result of its usage after being bitten by a Cobra survived more than a dozen local residents.

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