AsiaHuman-animal conflictSnakes in the cityReptiles are an increasingly common sight in the urban jungle"It's been raining snakes amid the recent heavy downpour,"reported the Mumbai edition of the Times of India on July 26th, in a news piece about a rock python which "refused to be evicted" from an autorickshaw.The same paper contained reports of three other pythons rescued from a shipping container, and yet another that was found trapped in a fisherman's net.A lost python spotted on a city beach made the papers the next day.Later that week a 28-year-old man found a snake in the distant suburbs, wrapped it around his neck and walked through a nearby market area as his friends made videos for social media.He died after it bit him three times.It is not literally raining snakes. But a week of torrential downpours has had the same effect,driving snakes and other reptiles out of their burrows and into the city, where they seek warmth, shelter and gastronomic delights.There are plenty to be found. Mumbai is highly built up and densely populated.But it is also full of ground-level foliage, warm nooks such as car engines, and lots of rubbish, the last of which attracts rats that make New York's rodents look malnourished.
