Deforestation today has led many wild animals to flee from their natural habitat and refuge into human habitats. The wild animals are unaware of human-made things, snakes usually fall into bore-wells. We regularly hear news about tigers, elephants, and bears attacking humans in search of food and shelter which leads to human casualties and even deaths. Many wildlife rescue teams are helping humans trapped with animals and also the animals in reaching their natural habitat. Wildlife Rescue society is one such registered NGO, who has been rescuing animals in Maharashtra for the last 13 years. I Akash Jadhav, famously known as “Sarpamitra Akash Jadhav” am the owner of this NGO. My love for animals and family circumstances brought me here.
I left my school in 7th class because of my family’s financial issue. Then I met one of my relatives Sunil Bhambal, who used to work for an animal rescue center in Satara, Maharashtra. As a curious child, I was always interested to learn about snakes and wild animals. Initially, my family was hesitant when I share about my love for animals and my joining the animal rescue team with them. But my father had supported me. So, I went to Satara in 2007, where I learned about rescuing snakes and how to keep them safe. Within a year I came to know about many species of snakes and the rescuing process.
In 2008I returned to my native Nagardev, a small village near Ahmednagar to start a wildlife rescue center. As people here believed in superstitions and performed tantric rituals after snake bites or any animal attacks.People had the belief that snakes can capture and remember a face, also the weirdest I heard is people die within minutes by releasing water from their mouths because of a snake bite. People were unaware of the first aid on snakebites. This concerned me so I started rescuing snakes in my neighborhood, and started saying people how to treat a snake bite and reach the hospital and seek a doctor instead of believing in myths.
After few days I started getting 5-6 calls a day which is when I felt the need for manpower. Wild animals aren’t easy to handle and it was being difficult for me to handle all these alone. Atul Pakhare, Nawaz Shaikh, Rishikesh Jadhav, Shiraj Sayyed, Siddhant Waghchaure, Rishikesh Paredeshi, Aniket Pakhare were people who were trained in snake rescuing and they joined our team and I thank them.
Our team operates from Ahmednagar, and we are a 24*7 open rescue center. Like good days in life, bad days are bound to happen. I faced one such day in 2011, while rescuing a Cobra I was bit by it and was in a coma for around 14 days. Luckily, I survived and continued my work after 2months of rest. Recently, we have started accepting women rescuers in our teams as a part of the women empowerment program. Megha Bhalerav, Neeta Gajare, Rajeshri Alhat, Sheetal kashar are a few female members of our team and we are extremely proud of them.
My team has rescued leopards, foxes, jackals, snakes also birds. While rescuing any wild animal we contact the forest department and together we rescue them. In the case of wild animals, we hand over them to the forest department officials or if they need any basic treatment we bring them to our office treat them, and then release them.
I started a YouTube channel named “Sarpamitra Akash Jadhav” in July 2017. I upload videos of my rescue work, first aid, and basic treatment for snake or animal bites to be done before reaching a doctor. People started following and accepting our work. To date, we have rescued more than 12000 species of wild animals. And I am very proud of my team. I would request you to follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
You can contact us round the clock for help on +91-9209640006.
Source: theindiasaga
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