Mangaluru: A Mangaluru-based snake rescuer, Tauseef Ahmed, has safely retrieved at least 23 python eggs from Kulai on the city outskirts.

According to Ahmed, two local residents, Shubha and Soumya, had called him from Kodikeri in Kulai on Saturday morning. They said that a big python was found during an excavation work near their house on Friday evening. The python had left a big cluster of eggs behind before slithering away. The workers there were so insensitive that they threw the eggs behind the railway track for animals to eat them up, Tauseef said.

“I immediately rushed there and every minute mattered for me. I found 25 eggs in the clutch out of which one was already fully damaged and the second one looked partially damaged. However, the rest were all luckily intact. The same was safely placed in a basket and handed over to the forest department,” said Tauseef.

The python, unlike most other snakes, do coil around and incubate the eggs. Sometimes, they have been known to be with the newborns for a week and then move on, he said.

All 23 of them have been handed over to the forest department, who have assured that the eggs would be artificially incubated. Maybe in a week or two they should all crawl out, Tauseef said.