Wildlife SOS recently organised an awareness and training program in Reptile handling at Delhi’s elite Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Jawaharlal Nehru University in the Capital’s posh South Delhi area is a world renowned educational institution where students from all over India as well as different parts of the world come to study. The campus is located in a lush green belt and is home to a variety of wildlife mainly reptiles, blue bulls, birds and butterflies. Of them all the reptiles create the maximum “flutter†among the residents.
The security team at JNU has seen some changes lately with lot of new recruits coming in so the Chief Security officer, Maj. Sangwan invited Wildlife SOS to hold a training program session for these new security team members so that they are prepared and equipped to face any situation without harming the animal.
“It is not uncommon to have scaly visitors calling in at all hours in your room at JNU. We get a lot of rescue calls from the JNU campus. But mostly the security staff is called in to “deal†with the situation. Hence we felt that it is very important to create awareness among them so that we can preserve our reptile population in the wild†said Abhishek Narayan, Wildlife SOS Helpline coordinator.
During the training program the security staff was informed about the most common species found in and around JNU with pictures to help them identify the poisonous and non-poisonous variety. They were also advised on steps to be taken in the event that they encounter a reptile and how to manage the situation so that the animal is not harmed and neither does it cause any injury to others.
Dr. Suryaprakash, Senior Professor, Zoology Department, JNU and Tejus Cherian, Professor in JNU assisted us in conducting this program. They have also been very helpful and cooperative in carrying out all the rescue work happening in and around JNU.
