Forest department raids snake venom centre in Haridwar, venom was being sold, 86 snakes recovered:

News Topical, Digital Desk : The forest department team along with Maneka Gandhi's organization raided the Snake Venom Center in Haridwar and recovered 86 snakes, out of which 6 snakes have now died. This center was being run illegally. Only one handler was present here, while 86 poisonous snakes were found at the center, from which venom was extracted and sold. It was also told that the license of this center had already expired. Big questions are being raised on the forest department in this matter.

It was told that the license of the Snake Venom Center had expired in December 2023. Despite this, the center was being operated till 2025, where venom was extracted from dangerous snake species. Among these, snakes like cobra and Russell viper were kept illegally and their venom was being extracted and sold. This venom is sold in the international market at the rate of Rs 32 thousand per gram.

The forest department released the snakes into the forest

The snakes recovered in the recent action of the Uttarakhand Forest Department were presented in the CJM court. After this, they were released in the forest, but the shocking thing was that out of the 86 snakes rescued, 6 snakes have died. Now the question is that when the license of the center had expired, how did this center continue to run till 2025 and the employees and officials of the Forest Department did not even get a clue of this?

The center was being run with the help of one handler and two employees

According to the information, only one snake handler and two employees were posted at the center. Their job was to extract venom from snakes and send it to drug manufacturing companies. Surprisingly, in November 2024, the forest department team itself had inspected this center and recorded the details of snakes and venom there, yet no action was taken against this center.

Former MP Maneka Gandhi demanded action

On this matter, former BJP MP and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi has written a letter to the Uttarakhand government demanding strict action against the guilty officials. She has raised the question that when the monitoring of the department was so lax, then who will take responsibility for the death of snakes and illegal snake trade?

The officer said- action will be taken against the culprits after investigation

Wildlife PCCF Rajnan Kumar Mishra of Uttarakhand Forest Department said that we have released all the snakes safely in the forest, while 6 snakes have died and their post-mortem is being done as per the procedure. In this case, he has said that action will be taken against the culprits after investigation.