Ahmedabad: It starts with a WhatsApp message; a location pin. By the time most people look up from their phones, young volunteers are already on their way to a construction pit, a mobile tower, or a burrow in the ground. Across Gujarat, students, mechanics, accountants, and teenagers, some as young as 12, are building informal but serious rescue networks. Armed with hooks, torches, and cameras, they quietly step in to rescue birds, snakes and wild animals often in tense, unpredictable situations where every second matter. What they share is a refusal to let fear decide an animal’s fate. Fighting fear, one rescue at a timeJay Parekh was 21 when a call came from Chiloda. A snake had retreated into a burrow. The Gandhinagar resident waited for hours — the kind of patient vigil he had been learning since he first started rescues in Class 11. When the tail finally appeared, he moved quickly. But he was too late. The spectacled cobra was already dead. A local woman later admitted that someone, in a panic, had poured acid into the burrow before help could arrive. “We try to save life, and then we see what fear and cruelty can do,” Parekh says. In Kutch, 22-year-old Raj Garva faces the same battle almost every day. A car mechanic from Mirzapur, Garva grew up in Devisar watching villagers kill snakes on sight. A neighbour, Jagdish Parmar, changed his perspective, explaining why snakes matter to the ecosystem. In four years, Garva has rescued nearly 2,000 snakes. He and other volunteers travel up to 85km — sometimes as far as Bhachau or Mundra — on their own expense to respond to calls. “People ask if a snake can be killed,” he says. “We tell them to just watch it, and refrain from picking it up even with a stick.”Urban lifeline for the wildIn Ahmedabad, five friends have formed an informal WhatsApp group with NGOs and the forest department. Sahil Lagad, 19, a BCA student, joined when he was 15 after helping rescue a dog in Sanand. He now works strictly by protocol “Injured peacocks must go to the forest department immediately,” he says, rattling off wildlife laws. One rescue stands out. A crow had become entangled in manja (kite string) near the top of a mobile tower at Shantivan. “Police blocked the road. Two fire brigade vehicles raised hydraulic ladders and we rescued the bird,” says Lagad who led the mission. Working alongside him is Saloni Zaveri, 23, an accountant known for her fearless fieldwork. She recently helped a 10-member team lift an injured nilgai out of a construction pit while keeping stray dogs away. The group also includes Het Shah, 21, Meet Shah, 20, and Tirthraj Upadhyay, 20.Their most gruelling mission involved a macaque with severe facial injuries. It was missing an eye and part of its jaw, likely from human cruelty. “We tracked the animal for five months, sitting for up to seven hours a day to earn its trust,” says Tirthraj. Unfortunately, the monkey died due to stress, two days after it was captured.The group has rescued around 250 animals and birds so far, said Het.Rescue with a lensSome volunteers don’t carry hooks, they carry cameras. Jaimin Bhavsar, 20, from Gandhinagar, always dramt of becoming a photographer. Severe migraines ended his plans to study abroad, but not his resolve. He began using an SLR camera in Class 5 and took on video-editing jobs in Class 10 to save for professional equipment. Today he has documented 12 owl species across Gujarat. “Owls taught me the value of the night,” he says.Kavya Panchal, 14, uses her camera to understand nature. Aryan Modi, 15, has already built a 2TB wildlife archive as he began birding at age two, introduced to it by his grandfather.The youngest of the group is 12-year-old Rian. His first photograph — a bird perched on a tree in Gir — was so well-composed that his father, J N Patel, handed him his professional DSLR on the spot. Rian went on to spend the rest of that trip tracking lions. He now photographs tigers in Ranthambore with a patience that belies his age.Snake rescuer’s kitMost snake rescues involve the ‘Big Four’: spectacled cobra, Russell’s viper, common krait, and saw-scaled viper. Standard equipment includes snake hooks, ventilated transport boxes, and high-intensity torches. The golden rule: never handle alone, and always know the nearest anti-venom centre. What you can do to helpIf you spot an injured animal or bird, observe from a distance. Call trained rescuers or the forest department. Do not handle protected wildlife. For small birds, use a ventilated box and never force-feed water. One simple step can help: keep a water bowl outside. It can prevent the next emergency.
