Snake shows up at Neelasandra school

Bengaluru: A six-foot-long snake showed up at a school in Neelasandra and entered the upper kindergarten (UKG) classroom, leaving the school staff, caretaker and workers, who were carrying out civil works, run for cover in panic on Saturday morning.

Fortunately, no students were present as the management of the Atfaa High School had declared a holiday to carry out drainage repair work, keeping in mind hygiene issues.

Although the school management intimated the corporation forest cell about the snake, the wildlife volunteers chose not to search or rescue the snake, most likely a black Indian cobra, as it had disappeared into a rat hole nearby. The worried school authorities are trying hard to locate the snake, so that it does not show up again after regular classes resume on Monday.

While Gowramma, a caretaker at the school, was sweeping the play ground 9.30 am, she had a narrow escape when a black snake fell close to her from a nearby tree. While sweeping she realised that the crows at the nearby tree were getting restless and making lot of noise. When she looked up she saw the snake falling from the tree.

The snake soon crawled its way through the school ground and entered the classroom. It stayed there for a while and escaped through a window to a closed pavement on the school premises. The CCTV cameras at the school revealed that the snake was at least six feet long. Local leaders along with the school staff carried out search for the snake until evening, but in vain.

“We called up the corporation forest cell volunteers a number of times. When they got to know over the phone that the snake had gone into one of the rat holes, they did not even come to the school,” said Venugopal, a caretaker.

The snake again reappeared around 4.30 pm at the school compound, when one of the staff was searching for it at the rat holes. “It again went into another hole and we are sure that the snake is still very much within the school,” said Nanda Kumar, the owner of the school. “We will resume search on Sunday to locate and rescue the snake, before the school resumes on Monday,” he added.