Most children are scared to death of snakes but one
11-year-old girl in India fearlessly refers to the scaly reptiles as her 'best
friends'.
Kajol Khan from Ghatampur, Uttar Pradesh, India, continues to
eat and sleep with the deadly animals despite receiving several potentially
deadly venom-filled bites.
She said: 'I have a lot of fun with the cobras. It hurts when
they bite me but sometimes it’s my own fault because I tease them. It’s quite
funny.'
Kajol's father, Taj Mohammad, now in his late fifties, has
worked as Ghatampur's snake catcher for the past 45 years.
He has already passed on his skills to his eldest son Gulab,
31. But now it seems Kajol, the youngest, is keen to join the family business.
'I don’t like school,' she said. 'I much prefer working with
the snakes.' Her bond with the creatures
- which stems from crawling around them as a baby - now means they are her
favorite companions.
Since her friendship with the killers began she has been
bitten on her stomach, her cheeks and arm. She was seriously ill but made a
full recovery.
'It hurts when they bite me but they don’t mean it,' she
said. 'I get a little frightened when I see the blood but my father sorts me
out. He rushes into the forest and comes back with the medicine.'
Kajol's father is now famous in his region and is nicknamed
Bhura (the snake-catcher). But he earns a measly £14 a job for catching the
snakes from houses and shops in the area.
'We help people in the area and catch the snakes that have
slipped into their homes,' Taj said.
'My father is a snake catcher, his father was a snake
catcher. It’s our family business and we’re very proud of what we do.'
The medicine comes from the leaves of a wild plant, which
remains top secret. It gets mashed to a pulp and mixed with butter and black
pepper. It is then eaten and rubbed on the wound.
'If the medicine is administered quickly enough it will save
you,' Taj said. 'It has saved my life many times and it seems to work for Kajol
too.'
But Kajol's mother, Salma Bano, wishes her daughter would
grow out of the snake-phase - especially since the youngster was expelled from
school for taking her pets to class in her backpack.
'I want her to go to school like other children. If I had my
own way I’d get rid of the snakes but she loves them and so I don’t want to
break her heart,' said Salma.
'She now refuses to study and will play with the snakes all
day. 'I try to make her study at home but she keeps the snakes with her and
gets distracted.' Taj said: 'We don’t have many visitors. People don’t like our
pet snakes so they stay away.
'We don’t mind so much, but it’s sad for Kajol. Children are
too scared to come round and play with her. She’s just not like other
children.'
Her worried mother added: 'She’ll find it hard to find a
husband in the future if she doesn’t stop playing with the snakes.'
It is estimated that venomous snakes are responsible for
fifty thousand deaths each year internationally.
Culled From Daily Mail
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