under the fire star

A note from the quaint India that is disappearing fast: from India Today (registration required)

Poisoned Legacy

It seemed a quintessential, full-colour blast of Timeless India. On Dussehra this year, more than 10,000 snake charmers from across the country gathered at the 700-year-old temple in Charkhi Dadri, Haryana, to attend the annual snake charmers' panchayat (conference). Temple bells chimed as men in flowing kurtas and multicoloured turbans and bejewelled women in vivid pinks and purples paid obeisance to their guru, Baba Gulabgir.

Masked by the festivities, however, are anger, anxiety and fear... Snake charmers have been enduring symbols of India for travellers since the days of Al Beruni, but their art is illegal in this country, according to the Wildlife Act 1972. So their very livelihood and skills-passed down 15 generations over a thousand years-face extinction...

Defiance is writ large. "This is what my forefathers practised and this is what my sons will practise," says Delhi-based Sheeshanath. But the belligerence may be futile. Most of the children seem more comfortable with plastic snakes than real one. A study by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) shows that more than 40 per cent of snake charmers have opted for alternative professions. Others make ends meet by playing their musical instruments at weddings and celebrations. But unemployment is rife among the community.

To lobby for greater concessions from the government, the panchayat took three vows: they will not skin snakes (which they claim is against their code), they will pick snakes only from farms, and they will not trap the endangered python. In return, they seek a guarantee of land and jobs for their children from the government. "The end of snake charming is much more than a loss of tradition," says Thade Shri. "It is a loss of knowledge of the ways of the forests, of medicinal plants and herbs." Indeed, traditionally, the nomadic groups of snake charmers dispensed herbal medicines from village to village...