By U Sudhakar Reddy
Friend of snakes K Raj Kumar who escaped venomous sanke bites 29 times had fallen to mosquito bite. Raj Kumar passed away
due to cerebral malaria at a city hospital on Monday morning. Ophiologist Raj Kumar who was featured by Paul Merton and was running
Friends of Snakes Society in Defence Colony in the city and known nationally. At the age of seven he started catching snakes and lost two of his fingers of both hands due to the snake bites. Deputy Conservator of Forests Mr A Shankaran who lost his personal friend
says ,"As a school boy he used to rescue snakes and hand over them to zoo.
He used to tell that officials that he was handing over them as the people are killing it. He had a great art of capturing the snakes and handle them gently as we handle the new-born. He survived the snake including cobra and viper bites several times and two times it was very serious as his fingers were amputated. Once he was admitted to Intensive Care Unit where 23 doses of
anti venom was given to save his life. He escaped all these but the cerebral malaria killed him,"
Raj Kumar used to attend at least 20 to 30 calls a month to rescue snakes in the twin cities. He had conducted hundreds of shows in the schools and institutions across the country.
K Prakash an engineer and brother of Raj Kumar says, "This is a great loss to the family. He is a such a loveable man. He was diagnosed for cerebral malaria and treatment began two days ago. He died on Monday morning,"
Raj Kumar had at least 200 disciples who adore him, Raj used to tell in interviews that he was rescuing snakes as they are
misunderstood species and friends of farmers. He used to tell that snakes eat rats that spoil the crop particularly paddy and if the snakes are endangered the food production will come down due to increased mice menace.
Raj Kumar is survived by a wife and son and parents. His son Dharam Teja was also featured by Paul Merton carrying python on his neck.
Rajkumar was trained in Pune snake par and Bronx Zoo in US. Shankaran recalls ,"He dedicated all his life for snakes. He never took
money for his shows. Government of India has donated him a jeep which he used for the rescue of snakes. Raj knows snake feeding habits,"
Raju and his team members used to lay traps at the railway tracks and catch the rats and bandicoots and bring them back to feed the snakes. A follower of world renowned Romulus Whitaker Raj Kumar says the snakes are soft natured warm and friendly.
In his first encounter with snake when group of people killed it he asked his mother Ms K Joan who told him that they are beautiful creations of god and were misunderstood. His father Mr K V Rao was a defence employee.
One of the disciples of Raj Kumar Mr M Shiva says ,"we are two hundred members and 30 of us are active. He used to train us with non poisonous snakes initially and then until he gets satisfied that we can safely handle he never used to expose us to poisonous snakes. He used to be always caution us about our safety,"
Raju another aspiring young ophiologist of Raj Kumar says ,"there are no words to describe him. We couldn't digest the death of our guru," Retired PCCF Mr R K Rao and several other prominent people helped him
to grow. Chief Wild Life Warden Mr Hitesh Malhotra and Additional PCCF Mr A V Joseph were members of executive committee of the society. Maneka Gandhi and Amala Akkineni were the chief patron of the society
His society was involved in spreading awareness apart from rescue and rehabilitation in the State. He had done around 3000 rescues and 4000 educational snake demonstration.
Raj Kumar was writing a book on snakes and his desire to establish a snake park couldn't be fulfilled.
Mr. Raj Kumar, spent almost three decades handling snakes, has come out with a blue print and spent several months in the United Studies Though land was given for snake park at Mahendra Hills he couldn't construct as permission as denied as the land is in the flight path. National zoo authority had given clearance and Union government approved a grant of Rs 25 crore but it didn't take off as Begumpet airport authorities refused permission. Later he tried for land at Necklace Road which didn't
materialise.
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