Snake Dance at Cubbon Park

This story and pictures so happened when I was sitting and whiling away time at the Press Club of Bangalore in Cubbon Park, with old friends from the same fraternity as me on the 24th of November, 2207.
All of a sudden there was commotion in the park area just outside the club premises and as all photojournalists react to any emergency situation we all ran out and witnessed an interesting fight between a Snake and two parakeets that were perched atop the same tree. This was nature at its best since we the humans have occupied their space and so the onus was left to them to fight for their living space.
A bloody battle raged for more than one hour before a snake catcher came to the rescue and the parakeets were given their space atop the tree. But not before the parakeets had wounded the snake in its tail and had chased it from one tree branch to another tree branch thus showing us that one need not be strong to defeat the guile of the faces of terror or for that matter a schemer who is plotting another’s downfall, but instead work as a team to defeat it or them.
A lesson learnt from the parakeets I discussed this story with the Editor K R Srinivas of the Bangalore Mirror were I was previously working, he reacted and said that take the help of Vaishalli Chandra to write the copy and we will run it as our page one story for the day.
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Two parakeets versus a snake. Not a fair battle, is it? Certainly not! Bangaloreans who were strolling through Cubbon Park on a lazy Saturday afternoon thought so too. That’s why they rescued the poor snake from the angry parakeets.
It may appear bizarre, but the logic-defying scene was witnessed by several people at Cubbon Park. A seven-foot-long rat snake in search of lunch was making its way up a tree, only it chose the wrong nest. For the nest belonged to two parakeets who were determined to protect their young.
A crowd gathered below while the wild ones battled it out above. Slithering from tree to tree, the hapless rat snake tried to reach the while the green pair did their best to dissuade their unwelcome guest. The people watched – some excited, some scared, but most of them had a chill run down their spine just being in the presence of a snake.
However nothing deterred the birds. Face-to face with the snake, they were just lunch. Clearly, they had their strategy worked out. So they went for its tail instead. Taking turns, they had the rat snake nicely cornered. The crowd could only look on in awe at the strategic placement of the birds. Perched on the adjacent branches, the birds took turns to attack the snake. The ringed Indian parakeets went full throttle attacking the snake and injuring it tail, all in a bid to save their nest.
The drama was, however, far from over. While the good Samaritan was placing the snake in the bag, the hassled and scared snake attacked its saviour. Though trained to rescue snakes, the bite left Mohan a little shaken.
On reaching the ground, he cleaned his wound. He also brought the snake out of the bag and cleaned its tail. Mohan assured the crowd that the bite wasn’t poisonous. An impromptu lesson in snake safety and he was on his way. The snake treated and released in the wilderness around Bangalore.

The rat snake making its way up the tree branches in search of its lunch as it comes face to face with the two parakeets perched atop the same tree.

The rat snake tries to approach the parakeets who were guarding their nest.

The Rat snake slithers cunningly across from one branch to another to get to it lunch even as the two parakeets watch carefully on the move and size up on how to counter attack it.

The assault on the creepy reptile with one parakeet facing him and the other pecking at it's tail. this they did for more than 10 minutes taking turns to fly around in a circle thus ensuring the snake to move little at a time and also making sure that the snake retreat in a haste.




Finally the rescue of the frightened and hurt snake by snake catcher Mohan who climbs the tree to get the rat snake then give a few moments to relax in a bag and wash its wounds on it tail inflicted by the two member team parakeets, before showing the rescued snake to the frenzy fotog clicking away to the tummy fill.