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| Snake charmers hit jackpot as superstition rules the roost | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Mhow (MP), Nov 28 Beliefs and superstitions relating to two-headed snakes are pushing the reptiles on the verge of extinction even as locals of a village in Madhya Pradesh have hit a jackpot with an emerging demand for the rare species and buyers willing to pay fancy prices for them.
Snake charmers of Pipliya Khurd village near here who are adept at catching two-headed snakes say there has been an increasing demand for the reptiles since last one year.
Hordes of people from the state as well as from Gujarat and Maharashtra come to them looking for the snakes and are ready to shell out anything between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 25 lakh depending upon their weight.
"A fully developed snake weighing around 3.5 kg fetches a price of around Rs 25 lakh but if it weighs 2.5 kg, the price comes down to Rs five lakh," says Hukum Singh, a farmer.
Around 60 snake charmers live in the village, located about 55 km from Indore. They catch the snakes from banks of river Narmada.
Not a single day passes when people don''t come here for buying the snakes called ''landi'' in the local dialect, says Singh.
"Most of the buyers are ''tantriks'' (who perform black magic), who use them to find treasures buried underground.
When contacted, Indore DFO Raghvendra Shrivastava says that the forest department is looking into the matter.
Two-headed snakes are scheduled species and buying or selling them is illegal, he said.
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