This is the red sand boa.
A non-venomous, calm and harmless snake found in India.
It is protected under the highest Indian wildlife laws,
giving it the same protection status as the tiger.
Despite this, some old and new bizarre stories
about the red sand boa make it one of the
most illegally traded reptiles in the country.
We spoke with researchers, wildlife rescuers, forest officials,
and people involved in the illegal trade
to learn about the myths and misinformation
that fuel the crime and harm a rather docile creature.
The red sand boa is a thick, reddish-brown burrowing snake.
It digs into loose mud and sand
and spends much time underground.
Mostly nocturnal, it waits for rats, mice and lizards
to walk close to its hiding spot before striking.
The snake is widespread across India in dry, sandy
and rocky terrains, often near farms.
If we talk about Delhi NCR, the most dominant kind of habitat we have is either
river Yamuna floodplain or we have this proper Aravalli scrubland.
They occupy this kind of habitat because this is
more like a scrubland, sandy area
and the sand boa basically prefers this kind of grassland
where there is some loose sand.
It prefers that sandy habitats and keeps on burrowing.
This sand-loving snake has a unique look.
It gets it from its tail.
The thick and blunt tail resembles its head,
the reason for its moniker,
do muha’ which means ‘double-headed.’
This is a kind of a defence mechanism.
Whenever they sense any danger,
they coil themselves into a ball.
And they place their tail over their body.
Because most of the time if any bird attacks it,
or when any predator attacks it,
the tail can bear the brunt of it.
And sometimes this is also a strategy to hunt.
But the snake doesn’t have two heads obviously.
But around the country,
the red sand boa’s appearance and the ‘do muha’ tag
have sparked superstitions,
a driving force behind its trade.
We don’t know about snakes
that is why they are so much prevalent like these kinds of myths.
Nimal Kulkarni is a reptile expert and one of the authors
of a 2023 report on the red sand boa trade.
This two heads superstition has not done good for the snake at all.
There are some which also believe that you know,
this snake has the ability of choosing
on which side to go on every single day.
The trade name for this snake also is called double engine.
But besides these, there are a whole lot of other superstitions
because of which the snake actually started going into trade.
One of the important ones is that
this snake can lead people to hidden treasures
or the fact that if you keep this snake in your house,
you will actually certainly become rich.
There is another superstition of the snake actually
” attracting a lot of wealth by the weight of the snake. ”
The heavier the snake, the more stronger
you know its pull of attracting treasures or wealth.
And that’s really turned into a really bad aspect for the snake
because we’ve had instances of people making the snake
swallow larger slabs or tubes or balls of lead,
which, you know, make the snake heavy.
The blackmagic that happens,
is done only with the two headed snake.
The blackmagic that happens, it is done based on the weight.
Like it has to be more than 4 kgs.
If it’s less than 4 kgs, it won’t work.
People who smuggle and trade the snake,
increase the weight.
They inject it, feed it or insert things to increase the weight.
This harms the snake.
This can even lead to its death.
And that happens also.
Every time that we’ve actually seen
seizures of the red sand boa,
they’ve always been live individuals.
We’ve also found individuals which have been malnourished,
“we know that they’ve been kept for a long time, not fed properly.”
This very nature of the snake actually, you know,
being easy to handle, easy to take care,
” easy to transport from one place to another”
is the reason why this has remained a lot in as a trend.
So the misconceptions that are there in people,
have no truth to them.
There is no medicinal value to this,
nor any tantrik rituals use it.
This is an organised crime.
So it’s a gang of 5-6 people.
They pose as the purchaser, the seller, the tantrik.
A dealer arranges for the meeting.
They get a staged buyer from the same gang.
They just want to ensnare one person
who can put in Rs. 5 lakh, 10 lakh
so that they can continue their con.
So when their work is done, meaning once
” they dupe a third person,”
they disappear and are out of the picture completely.
There’s a lot of spotlight put on the price of this thing.
They’ve actually given a price tag or a value to the snake
which goes in lakhs and crores of rupees actually.
And that unfortunately instead of you know,
” basically highlighting on how the people were caught”
highlights the cost and gives it a price tag because of which
“more and more people, you know rather the younger generation”
a certain section of people, youth from villages
“from you know, these people who really aspire to do bigger things”
“with quick money actually get into this aspect of finding this snake ”
and fall into this trap.
And that is a cause of worry.
A highly inflated price tag,
superstitions about magical powers
and unscientific claims of medicinal properties,
have all amplified trade and become the leading causes of the red sand boa’s population decline.
Even today, misinformation and superstitions keep emerging.
One such recent myth is that the snake contains
a rare earth element called iridium.
“The iridium thing is a new one, basically been seen in the last five years.”
“It has suddenly come up, you know and mostly during the time,”
you know, during or after COVID that this thing has come up.
“Before that it was always you know, the entire snake that was being used, ”
the snakes were never opened up.
You can see it online, on YouTube and everything else.
If you see anywhere on the internet,
the two-headed snake is all around.
“Wildlife trade is rampant online and through chat platforms such as WhatsApp & YouTube. ”
” For authorities, monitoring and regulating the online space is a challenge.”
In fact, during our research, we came across a
YouTube channel advertising the snake.
Videos posted over the past few years and even this year,
showed different red sand boa individuals being measured and weighed, along with the date & price.
And there was a phone number.
So how do we go about this deal?
“Madam, first you come and check the stuff whether it’s ok or not and then give me the payment, ”
but you will have to come to Maharashtra, Dhule district.
But then how will we get it back to Delhi?
“You can get your own car or take it on a train. There will be no issue at all.”
“Right now due to the ongoing elections, they can stop the car and check it anywhere.”
Specially in the other states.
Once the elections are over, no one will touch you.
“How will I keep it alive all the way back to Delhi for all that time?”
Madam, it stays inside the mud even for 2-3 months at a time.
It eats mud.
And I will pack it in a bag with mud and give it to you.
“Even if you keep to for one month without any food, nothing will happen to it. ”
Sand boas do not eat mud.
“The trader and I didn’t exchange names or have any further phone calls.”
But before hanging up, he gave me a glimpse
of the buyers and their demands.
You can take it without any worry.
“And you are a woman, so no one will anyway stop your vehicle. ”
So it will be in the bag,
“There are people who have come from Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and taken it.”
And they also didn’t face any issues.
Only those who actually want it, come to me.
“They ask if the weight is 4.5 kgs, do the deal, take it and leave.”
No one tells me what it is used for, what’s the need.
I don’t know anything about it
Sadly, we found a few other YouTube channels as well,
indicating the extent of the trade happening digitally.
“The 2023 report by Wildlife Conservation Society – India, that Nirmal worked on, ”
documented a 172 unique media reports
of illegal red sand boa trade
from January 2016 to December 2021 from over 18 states.
“Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have the highest number of reported seizures. ”
“Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have the highest number of reported seizures. ”
But there’s a caveat.
“We always keep saying this, that these seizures were high, ”
because of the fact that probably the enforcement was better
intelligence network there has been really strong.
“In my tenure, there have been 4-5 cases of red sand boa trafficking.”
“And the thing is that it’s not people from one state who are involved. ”
They are from different states.
It’s not that it is community based
and that only a specific community is doing this.
People from different communities can be involved.
And it’s also not that only uneducated people are involved.
It’s not that only uneducated people believe in superstitions.
We find more educated people and
“well established folk who have decent amount of money, involved in this. ”
We have been saying this very clearly that
we cannot basically blame or even remotely think that
“this is being done just by this or by any of the snake handling communities ”
“or traditional communities who have been associated with snakes in any way.”
My major concern, even now is the size of the snakes.
“Every time that we are looking the size of the snake is a big snake, mostly, it’s a big female.”
A lot of times they are really healthy snakes.
And these individuals are basically targeted, collected,
kept properly, and then sold.
There is impact. Earlier, sand boa could be seen easily.
We would spot them on dirt roads, along fields.
Now it is not being seen.
I rescued this sand boa from a farm house about 4 days back.
I kept it under observation for 2 days.
And now this is fit for release into the wild.
And this is the perfect habitat for the release of the snake.
Red sand boas are at risk due to their illegal trade
and the rising demand to have wild animals as pets.
But there is another threat looming.
The floodplains in Delhi NCR are already in decline.
And the floodplain areas are either occupied as a farmland and people are doing good amount of construction.
“And the habitat that used to be there, they arent there anymore.”
When I started my field work, so this snake was very common.
And, like what I have seen,
now we are not getting sand boas in the wild.