As you may know, Nag Panchami is a religious holiday during which people worship snakes in the hope of gaining protection from them during the rainy season. This means that snakes, particularly cobras, are captured in suffocating bags, kept in tiny boxes, and starved so that they are more likely to drink cow’s milk—an “offering” to the god that is forced into them during rituals, even though they cannot digest it. Their teeth are violently yanked out, and many snakes’ mouths are crudely sewn shut—the pain!—before they are brought into cities by snake charmers. The snakes’ venom ducts are also often pierced with a hot needle, which causes the glands to burst.

Over the years, Animal Rahat has made significant progress in preventing harm to snakes by denouncing these practices as illegal. This year, we ran radio and television advertisements urging anyone who witnesses snake abuse during the holiday to call Animal Rahat’s emergency hotline. This holiday, one such abuser got his comeuppance not only for abusing a snake but also by having the hubris and poor judgment to post photos of himself with the snake online via an app called WhatsApp. The good news is that this allowed Animal Rahat to take action quickly. As a result, the man was jailed for two days.