(IN): Giant African snails invade Kochi

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*Giant African snails invade Kochi

 

*Nandagopal Nair

Saturday, September 29, 2007 (Kochi)

A couple of coastal hamlets down south have a strange visitor these days

that is giving the people their sleepless nights.

 

In what can be described as the attack of the critters, Giant African snails

are to be found everywhere in Kochi, inside homes and on walls.

 

The scene is akin to something straight out of a Hollywood science fiction

film.

 

But this is real life in Kochi and teachers at a school in Palluruthy are

having trouble getting their students attention.

 

''We have asked the children not to go near it,'' said R Geetha,

Headmistress, NSS Upper Primary School, Palluruthy.

 

Elsewhere in Mattanchery people say these snails are gobbling up all the

vegetation around their houses and destroying gardens.

 

People have retaliated by sprinkling salt on the snails, which makes them

shrivel up and die. 70-year-old Suber says he's never seen the creatures in

Kochi before, he's already got rashes from picking them up.

 

''When you pick it up, you get a sticky feeling on your palms. I had picked

them up and buried them, after spraying salt all over them. After that I

washed my hands with soap,'' said Suber, Colony resident.

 

Giant African snails are considered an invasive species and agricultural

pests in Africa where they are killed and eaten. Some even keep these snails

as pets.

 

A hermaphrodite and a prolific breeder, the Giant African snail seems to be

thriving in Kerala's wet and humid climate. Last year, a similar invasion

was reported from Azhiyor panchayat in northern Kerala.

 

While so far no one knows how they landed here zoologists warn that these

snails play host to many viruses.

 

''Rat is the main host, snails are the intermediary host and man the

accidental host. When the virus enters the body and reaches the brain, it

infects the outer layers of the brain leading to their inflammation causing

eosinophilic meningitis''

 

An invasion of a different kind has the people of this coastal hamlet

puzzled, curious and a bit apprehensive. As scientists try to unravel the

mystery of how these snails reached here, everyone else in Kochi has become

a homegrown expert.

 

 

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