The state forest department personnel today rescued a 18.2 feet long Indian Rock Python in distressed condition from a haystack in Paramanandapur village on the fringes of Bhitarkanika National Park here.
Since the past two months, five pythons which had strayed into human habitations, have been rescued and released into the wild by the forest personnel.
The adult python had strayed into the village, but did not harm humans or domesticated animals.
"After getting information, we rushed to the village and caught it alive with fishing net," said forest range officer Akshyaya Kumar Nayak.
Soon after rescuing the python, the forest officials released the reptile in the mangrove forest of Bhitarkanika, a safe habitat for snakes and lizards.
Pythons were normally not considered dangerous to humans, even though large specimens were powerful enough to kill an adult human being.
Unless provoked, python never attack humans. On occasions, pythons were found attacking humans only in self defence, the forest officials said.
