'Snakes' are 'protecting' this police station in Kerala

Believe it or not, Kerala Police is taking the help of snakes to protect themselves. But the snakes are not real, the police station in Idukki is using the rubber snakes to scare away the monkeys.

Monkeys are the big issue in hill station areas of Idukki. They were posing several difficulties at the station for some years. According to local police monkeys used to come in groups, and destroy the vegetable garden and other items at the station.

To tackle this problem, the forest-firing police station has bought China-made rubber snake. The personnel use replicas of snakes around the Cumbummettu police station that is located at the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border.


This experiment has worked successfully in scaring away the monkeys. The rubber snakes could be seen lying at various spots, including on the grille of the police station building, branches of the trees nearby.

The local police got the idea of snake replicas as per the advice of a local estate keeper who was doing the same thing to keep stray animals at bay.

"No monkey has dared to come anywhere near the station, particularly, after seeing the rubber snakes. The troop mistakes them for the real ones!" Cumbummettu sub-inspector P K Lalbhai told PTI.

"We were told that there won't be any more monkey menace if the rubber snakes were tied in places where they usually come in large numbers. There has been no menace after that experiment," he said.


"They used to come as group, roam around the station premises and even destroy the vegetable garden in our compound. But, after fixing the rubber snakes, their arrival has decreased remarkably," he told PTI.

He said they came to know about the trick of placing rubber snakes from a cardamom farmer in nearby Udumbanchola and did not waste time to experiment with them.