Snake rescuers discovered 16 cobra hatchlings in the RCF Colony staff quarters of a 29-year-old technician and his wife during a two-day operation that ended on Saturday. Kailash Mane, who moved into the apartment with his wife Poonam in April, told Mumbai Mirror he was too fearful to live in the house any longer. The Manes moved to another wing of the staff quarters on Sunday and said they will not return.The first cobra was spotted in the kitchen of their home – apartment 357 on the ground floor of Wing 16 – on Friday. “Poonam saw it near the gas cylinder and immediately called me,” Kailash said.“I rang up a snake rescuer and rushed home.” The hatchling was removed but Poonam chanced upon another one in the bathroom a few hours later. The snake rescuer, Sunil Kadam, was asked to return. He brought along four other conservationists and began to scour the apartment. “We found 12 cobras [including the two that prompted Kailash to seek Kadam’s help] at Mane’s house,” Kadam said. “They were all over: in the bedroom, in the cupboard, in the bathroom, behind the commode, under the kitchen sink, below the bed…”Unnerved, the Manes moved next door – to room 358 – on Saturday. “We were about to fall asleep when Poonam saw another snake in the bedroom. We called the rescuers and they caught four cobras,” he said. The couple packed their belongings and relocated to a different wing in the staff quarters. “We have not slept for two days,” Kailash said. “Though we’ve moved to another wing, we’re scared the female cobra might come looking for her babies.”Kadam dismissed Kailash’s fears as unfounded. “It’s a myth that the mother will return. She lays eggs and abandons the nest never to return,” he said. “Cobras mate between March and April and Mane’s room was locked for a few months before he moved in, this is probably when the snake laid her eggs.”The snakes discovered were of the species binocellate cobra, named for the spectacled pattern that spans its hood.The hatchlings measure about a foot at birth and grow to a length just shy of four feet when they reach adulthood. Their venom gland produces a neurotoxin which targets the nervous system, paralysing voluntary muscles and causing death by choking respiratory function.Venom delivered by hatchlings is as potent as that injected by adult cobras.RCF Colony flanks Anushakti Nagar, the residential complex for staff employed at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, which, given the nature of its undertaking, is located in an expansive, verduous parcel of land, one which is a habitat for several of Mumbai’s venomous and non-venomous snakes, including the krait, Russell’s viper, rat snake, and cobra.“There has been an in the number of snakes this season. We have put up posters giving out numbers of snake rescuers,” said RCF’s Deputy General Manager, Corporate Communications, AN Gandhe.“We’ve observed this rise in numbers ever since a hillock was cut to construct the Eastern Freeway.”