• School was started in 1966 and now has 800 students
• School is presently nurturing more than 3,000 snakes

Belgaum, Jul 31: A visit to the Snake Park School at Dholagarwadi makes you to know many interesting details about snakes.

Located at a tiny village on the borders of Maharashtra and Karnataka, 25 kms from Belgaum, this school meant for ‘snake education,’ is believed to be the only one of its kind in the nation.

The school is presently nurturing more than 3,000 snakes, with all varieties like, cobras, king cobras, pythons, manyar, ghonas, phurate, chapadi, dhaman, naneti, sarpatoli, tasker, belalaneti, mandul, durakya, kukkari and several others. And students of the school carrying live snakes in their hands or playing with them, has become a common sight in the here.

‘‘The main aim of the Snake Park School is to educate people about snakes’’, said Sadashiv Patil, one of the teachers of the school. According to him, the founder of the school, Satuppa Takkekar has always believed that snakes are friends of people and this school was started by him only to educate the villagers, as he had often seen villagers killing snakes.

The school was started in 1966 and now has a strength of 800 students. A junior college has also been started in which now has a strength of more than 200 students.

The school is affiliated to the Center Zoo Authority of India and Maharashtra State Vanyajeevi Samrakshana Vibhag.

The school does not get any special grant either from the State Government or from Central Government.

The snakes are protected in several pits dug here and are fed with eggs, rats, frogs and chicken, Patil said.

The school also organises ‘Snake Jatra’ on the Naga Panchaami Day, on which the snakes are kept for exhibition.

The School teachers who are well trained in handling the poisonous snakes educate people on how to manage poisonous snakes. ‘‘People have several misconceptions and superstitions about snakes.

We make them aware of the truth,’’ Tikkekar said. For example, snakes do not have ears and so cannot play to the tunes of Pungi. This is a cent per cent truth, though contradictory to a popular belief.

The people who visit the school become friends of snakes and this is the specialty of this school.