Mumbai Drain Reveals 22 Baby Rock Pythons in Rare Urban Hatching

According to a state forest department official, twenty-two Indian rock pythons have successfully hatched from eggs that were discovered last month in a drainage line in Mumbai.

The founder of RAWW (Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare) told PTI that the eggs found during pre-monsoon maintenance work in May along the Eastern Express Highway, were recovered alongside a nine-foot-long female python.

The Maharashtra Forest Department, in collaboration with RAWW, incubated the eggs in a controlled setting, leading to the successful hatching of the young pythons.

As per Chinmay Joshi, a zoologist with RAWW, the mother python was deemed healthy and released back into the wild, while the eggs were placed under artificial incubation. The hatchlings began emerging early Monday morning.

Sharma noted that the baby pythons will undergo health check-ups before being released into their natural habitat.

Indian rock pythons are listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, granting them the highest level of legal protection in India. They are also classified as "Near Threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), facing threats from habitat destruction, hunting, and poaching.