Bhubaneswar: The wildlife wing of the Forest department today arrested a snake rescuer in Odisha’s Bhadrak district for illegally possessing live cobras.

Arrested snake rescuer Mirza Md Arif, a resident of Puruna Bazar area of Bhadrak, illegally kept two monocled cobras with him, said the wildlife wing of the Forest department.

“Mirza Md Arif has been arrested in Bhadrak Range for illegally possessing live snakes,” said the PCCF (Wildlife) in a Twitter (X) post today.

Arif is a well-known for his skills to rescue poisonous snakes. He had rescued a quite few king cobras from various places in Bhadrak in the past.

Mirza Md Arif has been arrested in Bhadrak Range for illegally possessing live snakes.Two monocled cobras…
And just think of it. He has two accounts in FB with 2.82 Millions & 144 k followers respectively. Sickening.The SM platform has been requested to suspend the account. pic.twitter.com/uPtMaTyOSj

— Susanta Nanda (@susantananda3) March 23, 2024

Several videos of Arif rescuing king cobras and other venomous snakes went viral on various social media platforms. The snake rescuer has millions of followers in his two Facebook accounts.

Soon after arresting Arif, the Forest department has requested the social media platform to suspend the snake rescuer’s two accounts.

“He has two accounts in FB with 2.82 millions and 144 k followers respectively. The SM platform has been requested to suspend the account,” said the PCCF (Wildlife) in his Twitter post.

Notably, a couple from the United Kingdom had visited Odisha last year to meet Arif and observe the latter’s snake rescuing skills.