The couple’s quirky wildlife adventures are now captured in ‘Snakes SOS: Goa’s Wildest,’ a 10-part series from National Geographic.
A Goa school recently had an unexpected student: a spirited, 11-foot-long crocodile. It strayed from the river during the rain and parked itself outside the classroom window. The staff quickly called on Steve Irwin – Benhel Antao and Luis Remedios from Goa – a wedding planner by profession and a wildlife rescuer by passion. So, it’s hardly a surprise that date nights for them involve escorting reptiles to safety instead of the clinking flute of Champagne Under Star Lit Cabana.
“It’s a crazy life we lead,” laughs Lewis over a call from Goa. “On our anniversary we got a call to rescue a monitor lizard. It was injured. We took it to the vet, sutured the wound and made sure it heals,” she adds. The couple’s bizarre wildlife adventures are now captured in Snake SOS: Goa’s Wildest, a 10-part series by National Geographic. The show also documents the reptile population, the techniques used, and the contributions made by Lewis and Benhel. Together, these two have so far saved other animals including leopards, gaurs, porcupines and bats.
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Benhel has been a wildlife enthusiast since childhood. He observed that many people have misconceptions about snakes and this creates fear and often results in the killing of these reptiles. “We all should know how to respect animals,” he says, adding that when he started, he would gently catch snakes and take them to the forest department. “Then there was no internet or books to use as references. My methods were primitive and similar to what I had seen on television. I gradually came to know which snakes are found in India. They state that Goa has 25-30 species of snakes and all four large species: Russell’s viper, saw-scaled viper, krait and spectacled cobra.
“I have been rescuing snakes with the forest department for almost 11 years,” he says. Now an expert, Benhel organizes workshops to educate people about reptiles. Lewis met him during one such awareness program. “Our mutual love for wildlife brought us closer together,” she says, “that I eventually began to see them in a different light: not as predators but as living beings trying to go on with my day. were.”
And like his wedding clients who come from all over the world, he also receives requests from people all over the country to help save the snakes. The couple guide strangers in different cities, over lengthy video calls, on how to deal with a situation when they find an unexpected “guest” in their home.
Imagine finding a family of 12 bronze-backed tree snakes in the AC unit or cobra under the bed. “When someone sees a snake in the house, we ask them not to kill it but to call us, and in the meantime keep a safe distance. The mindset of the people has changed,” says Benhel. Now, people also ask Benhel and Lewis to accompany them on the snake rescue call. “We want to be called teachers, not just snake saviors. This part of the education is now captured by NatGeo and is being shared through the series.”
Snake SOS: Goa’s Wildest It will premiere on National Geographic Channel in India on January 10 at 8 PM. The episodes will be aired every Monday and Tuesday and will be available in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Kannada.
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