Anugul, August 13 (Odisha.in) 46-year old Sutari Nayak of Badabudhapanka village in Angul district, Orissa, located at a distance of about 200 kms from Bhuabneswar is popularly known as ” Garuda ” as he eats live snakes without any hesitation.
Sutari does not eat snakes because he has nothing to eat. He eats snakes to draw the attention of local people and wants to be discussed among them.
Sutari has three living children, wife and old mother at home. He works as an agricultural labourer from which he earns his livelihood. But since last 16 years he has developed the fancy of eating snakes. All the snakes he catches and eatsare non-venomous.
How did Sutari developed fancy for eating snakes ? He has a fascination for snakes and was catching snakes from his childhood. While catching snakes some snakes use to bite him and there were bleedings from the injuries. But 16-years ago few of his village friends told him, ” the snakes are biting you, can’t you bite the snakes ? ”
This was a challenge to Sutari and he started biting the snakes with his teeth. There was no advrse efefct on his body by doing so. Moreover the meat and blood of the snakes were intoxicating for him. Since then he went on catching the snakes, biting and eating them , without cooking or roasting.
Because of such peculiar actions of Sutari , he is being treated as an outcast in the village. On many occassions he use to catch and eat snakes alive only to earn some money out of this as people pay him to witness his bold and peculiar act.
Sutari is illiterate and have no knwoledge about the effect of venom on human body when a venomos snake bites.
He also eats leaves of wild bushes out of fancy without bothering for the consequence.
Though some enjoy such act of Sutari, wildlife lovers and medical experts donot appreciate such act.According to Chandan Jani, a wildlife resaerch scholar , by observing Sutari’s activities, there are likelihood of other people becoming encouraged to eat snakes.
In that case, those who will encounter with venomos snakes will meet their end. If they will eat non-venomos snakes, gradully their number will go down and it will create ecological imbalance
Subhendu Mallick, popularly known as the Snakeman of Orissa, who is an agricultural scientist, said since snakes are in the schedule-2 list of Wildlife Preservation Act, people like Sutari who are dealing with them brutally should be taken to task.
The medical experts are also not in favour of eating snakes. Dr. Jagannth Mohapatra, an eminent Medicine Specialist of Bhubaneswar, said, though such persons develop immunity against snake bite, they should not commit such act which may prove fatal .
Odisha.in