Mysuru: Ophidiophobia, means abnormal fear of snakes. The District Administration is taking all precautions to see that the Mysore Race Course at the foot of Chamundi Hill, is clear of snakes during the rehearsal tomorrow for the International Yoga Day and for the big day on June 21.

Nine snake catchers have been deployed and they started the search for the lurking reptiles (fear of reptiles is called herpetophobia) at the Race Course from this morning. Tourism Department Deputy Director H.P. Janardhan supervised the search operations with Snake Shyam leading the team.

“There are not many snakes in the area, as it is the rainy season. No one need to fear. In all these years of catching snakes, I have hardly caught any in all these years except for catching a few rat snakes which are non-poisonous. Hence, all the yoga performers can do the asanas without fear. Besides, our team will be there till the end of the show,” said Snake Shyam.

MRC Secretary K.G. Anantha Raj Urs speaking to Star of Mysore said, “The District Administration approached us for the venue and we gave our acceptance. We are very happy to be a part of the proud moment to see that the Race Course as the venue will also enters the Guinness World Record. We are also deploying our staff as volunteers both tomorrow and on June 21, the International Yoga Day.”

The following are the snake catchers who were involved in search operations.

Their names along with phone numbers have been carried, as people can contact them during emergencies: Snake Shaym (99805-57797) Snake Deepu – Mob: 90088-81220, Snake Prakash – Mob: 97397-66067, Snake Shivu –  Mob: 99017-21712, Snake Ramesh – Mob: 99451-08998, Snake Jayaram – Mob: 94499-93249.