Over 58,000 die of snake bite every year in India, reveals study

Chennai

A copy of the science journal released to media said around 70 per cent of these occurred in limited low altitude, rural areas of eight states -- Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana), Rajasthan and Gujarat. “Our continuous study is to reduce the incidence of snake bites in rural India and identify the populations most affected by fatal snakebites in India. Since deaths are restricted mainly to a lower altitude, intensely agricultural areas, during a single season of each year, this should make the annual epidemics easier to manage,” opined Romulus Whitaker, founder, Centre for Herpetology, MCB.

The renowned herpetologist also told DT Next that India’s snakebite burden was staring and growing inviting more action. Regarding Tamil Nadu, Whitaker said that the situation was much better when compared with other States.

Half of all deaths occurred during the monsoon period from June to September. Available data indicated that most envenomation were due to Russell’s vipers followed by kraits and cobras. Tamil Nadu is also notorious for snake bites, but the mortality rate is low when compared with other Indian States, MCB sources said.

A staggering 1.2 million snakebite deaths in India has occurred since 2000 and the findings in 2011 were taken and expanded along with the nine-year data compiled from various government and private hospitals in India. The number of snakebite deaths over the past two decades in India far exceeds previous estimates, says the new study authored by Professor Prabhat Jha, Director of Centre for Global Health Research Centre, Toronto. The Indian and UK partners expanded the results of the 2011 study by adding 11 more years of field data covering 600,000 randomly selected deaths, and a systematic review of 78 Indian snakebite studies. According to Jha, snakebite, which primarily targets rural farmers are most neglected. But, since 2017, WHO has prioritised snake bites.

“Targeting certain areas with education about simple methods, such as ‘snake-safe’ practices, wearing rubber boots and gloves and using rechargeable torches (or mobile phone flashlights), could reduce the risk of snakebites,” Whitaker said in his study.