The python. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, June 2: A lawyer-cum-conservationist rescued an Indian rock python that had strayed into a garbage heap in the western part of the city outskirts early on Monday morning. It was later passed on to the Nandan Kanan Zoo authorities.

The python had taken shelter in a Cuttack Municipal Corporation dumping yard near Balibandha village.

Villagers had spotted it two days ago and reportedly decided to kill it for their “children’s safety”.

However, advocate Bibhudatta Jena, also an environmentalist committed to snake conservation, tracked the python down by following its dead skin and rescued it early morning today.

“It was not difficult as the snake was moulting and was relatively slow,” said the lawyer, who runs an eco-snake rescue centre. Later, he informed the forest department and officer Gauranga Mohapatra, who received it, said it was a “seven-ft long and 4kg heavy” beauty.

“Instead of releasing it to the forests we handed it over to the Nandan Kanan Zoo, where it would be safer,” Cuttack forest range officer Sudhanshu Mishra told The Telegraph today.