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An Indian animal activist holds snakes during the Naag-panchami, a popular Hindu snake festival, in Bombay August 13, 2002.

Indian animal rights activists said Tuesday they had rescued about 50 snakes from cruel treatment by their owners during an annual festival.

Every year the "Naag Panchami" festival draws snake charmers to cities, especially Bombay and Calcutta, hoping to make money from Hindus who believe the snakes bring good luck.

But Jyoti Nadkarni from the state-run Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said the snakes were often ill-treated.

"Some are defanged in the most unprofessional way. They suffer from mouth infection and their poison gland is punctured. We have kept them under medical observation," she told reporters.

Forest officials would release the healthier snakes in the jungle, animal rights activists said.

For several years animal groups and SPCA inspectors, armed with bags and sacks, have conducted raids before and during the festival to rescue the snakes, many of them cobras.

But undeterred, the snake charmers return every year, gathering in Hindu areas, around temples or at railway stations.

Poor nomads hunt down the snakes in fields and forests during the monsoon season when they come out in the open after their holes are inundated with rain water.

Since the nomads are unable to feed them, the snakes are starved and suffer from severe infections even before being sold to snake charmers, activists say.

"A snake is considered a farmer's friend because of its carnivorous nature. It survives on rats, birds, lizards, frogs and not milk as people would like to offer," said Issac Khemkar, spokesman for the Bombay Natural History Society.

Animal rights activists say hundreds of snakes die during the festival every year, many as a result of drinking milk which causes severe dehydration and allergic reactions.

(Agencies)