Krishanakri (Tamil Nadu), Dec 12: Forest Officials in Tamil Nadu are rescuing rock pythons from residential areas and sending them back to their natural habitat.

Krishanakri, 500 km away from Chennai, is among several places in the country, where snake hunting has been banned.

In spite of the ban, snake hunting continues with people clandestinely selling their skins.

"We are catching the pythons because earlier people used to catch them and sell their skin openly. Now that we have banned snake hunting to protect the species, the people bring the snakes to residential areas and smuggle their skin into the market, " said Subramanian, a Forest Ranger, Krishanakri.

The 'Forest Range Office' of Chennai which is retrieving the pythons from residential areas suspects that they are brought in by the smugglers.

"Lately, we have been rescuing more and more pythons from the residential areas. We are trying to ascertain the reason and will take necessary steps. Snake-hunting is illegal and we are trying our best to stop this. To begin with, we are now rescuing the captured pythons from the residential areas and releasing them in the forests, " added Subramanian.

According to forest officials, the rescue of pythons is on while 270 of them have been retrieved so far and sent to their natural habitat.

Recently, the police busted a smuggling syndicate in Kursi and arrested three members possessing python skins worth 2.5 crore rupees in the international market.

The rock python is found all over the country, especially in the forests of Southern India unlike its cousin the reticulate python, which is generally found in the jungles of North-eastern India.

According to reports illegal snake hunting has considerably increased in India and neighbouring countries, adding to the cause of decreasing pythons. (ANI)