Following up on the Snake Workshop that PfA (People for Animals) had held some time ago, they had the second workshop on the rescue and rehabilitation of various animals today.

I apologize for the picture quality; the light was pretty poor.

Alpana Bhartia welcomed the gathering.

Prem Koshy, restaurateur of repute, is also someone who has grown up with a lot of animals and birds being brought to his family farmhouse in Kerala; he has, therefore, immense experience in the field of animal rescue. He showed the gathering the tools used in catching snakes,and the best method of doing so. He used a wooden snake for the demo!

Those present all introduced themselves; they included people like Andre Pittet, (standing, in the photo below) who has been designing camera traps for use in the wild, with whom several renowned naturalists have been working.

Here’s another view of the audience which included a wide range of people, like civil engineers, software professinals, housewives, people already working for a while with animal rescue, students and two youngsters who were cheered to the echo for their enthusiasm!

Then Dr Somnath, the resident vet at the PfA shelter, talked about their Volunteer initiative and mentioned the various categories under which they required volunteers to contribute.

He then invited Dr M B Krishna, noted ornithologist and naturalist, to come forward to say a few words. Dr Krishna had come along with Sunil Kumar, who has co-authored a book on ants with Ajay Narendra. Dr Krishna made the point that apart from doing the rescue and rehabilitation work, groups like PfA had to spread the message across the general population. In a country like Great Britain, one in six people was registered and involved in some Nature-related activity; our proportional figures are very low, indeed.

Let’s hope PfA continues their good work(this is their eleventh year of operation) with both wild and domesticated animal rescue and rehabilitation…this beautiful icon of nature was shot in their animal shelter, and I hope it stands as an icon of the way they are trying to preserve the beauty of Nature….