Save Lives of Snakebite Victims in Rural India

  Awareness camps are intended to make the community aware of the pros and cons of a particular thing. Yes, we are doing the same making people aware of the importance of SNAKES and the dos and don'ts during snakebite. A community comprises several hierarchies, like children, boys, girls, men, women, etc. all these are part of this wonderful dynamic universe. Getting them equipped with a particular topic is a somewhat tedious but interesting thing, quoting “if you are interested". TIES along with our passionate ISBI volunteers is trying hard to teach the community and especially during this period, we focused on the young, sprouting generation-our little champs. An education from the base has more effect than from the top. We just followed the same from child to elderly people. They are the next generation and they can do many things, even above what we expect. 

During this period, specifically from September till December we conducted around 82 awareness workshops around the Northern part of especially, Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal. Students from 1^st grade till 12^th grade were focused and we also included tribal schools and community in our campaigns, as they can add up to our campaigns and we can reconstruct many misconceptions prevailing in their communities. More specifically said 7562 people were taught about snakes, snakebites, etc. Along with students we included forest staff, veterinary staff, village gatherings, farmers too.  The students were so excited and they attended the session with much interest and that gave us a feel of fulfilled and we are happy that there will be a great change tomorrow 

Let’s hear something from the volunteers:

“On the occasion wild food festival we conducted snake awareness workshop. Tribes used herbal plants for curing snakebite, we collected information about that plant. It was an interactive session with tribal women about myths, misconceptions, and snakebite management.”

“9th class students were attended our workshop from school. One of the girl's mothers from this group got bitten by Spect. Cobra some years ago. So I discussed about her case study for snakebite awareness and management”

“We conducted randomly a workshop in the village temple. We got an overwhelming response from villagers. We even didn't invite to anyone just stick the banner and people's joined. In that workshop identified two snakebites Case's. One the 18 years old boy got bitten by Russel viper one month ago. He got just remedies from local traditional healers. But necrosis seems fatal. We suggested to them for proper hospital treatment.”

Snakes- the most modern of reptiles, have immense importance in keeping the food chain. They are considered to be the most important component of natural ecosystem. As a common organism in every habitat they act both as predator and prey. Still there are many myths associated with snakes and snake bites. Even people with a well-developed awareness of the environment and the natural world are afraid of snakes. This has made snake the enemy of HUMAN and lead to the extinction of nay species due to killing, hunting, etc.

Snakebites are preventable health hazard often faced by rural population. It is a truth that snakes never chase people unless they are provoked. But if anyone bitten by a snake, they should be treated with care. In case of venomous snake bite, timely administration of anti-venom under medical care is the only cure. If not treated properly, it may lead to neurotoxic symptoms. Studies shows that the high fatality due to Krait bite is attributed to the no-availability of anti-snake venom (ASV), delayed and inappropriate administration of ASV, lack of standard protocol for management, etc. a mutli-pronged intervention including community awareness, empowering healthcare workers result in bringing down snakebite mortality.

Across India, volunteers of indiansnakes.org are conducting awareness workshops especially in rural villages across India as they are the most vulnerable communities. Some have an opinion that the faith healing is the best practice, others says that no doctor….no hospital, and there are another group who believes that a tiny cloth can heal everything. So changing human minds as it is known is a difficult task and our volunteers are striving to guide them properly. The destination is clear, that getting people aware about the do’s and don’ts of snakebite, but the path is rigid. 150+ workshops, 14291 people may be a small count for a normal man, but for us it’s a great number… The training covered students, layman, labourers, etc. tribes is another group who have good practices and many myths associated with each everything, but an interesting fact is that there is an herbal plant for curing snakebite and this knowledge was passed from the tribal community. Workshops are aimed to spread awareness on snakebite management, snakebite treatment, snake habitat, human-snake conflicts, myths and misconceptions, etc.,

Snake rescue calls, another area were we need to act to protect the species from extinction. We are happy to share that even from remote areas people are contacting us for rescue operations.

Anjali Health Centre (AHC), which is supporting the community by providing Anti Snake Venom (ASV) and snake bite treatment, etc., is now able to ensure safety of the community with the help of snakebite management training given by the volunteers. With our support they are now able to purchase antivenom at reduced rates and at more number, which inturn support more people.

Let’s see some responses of our sessions:

“On the occasion of Nagpanchami day we conducted randomly workshop in village temple. We got overwhelming response from villagers. We even didn't invite to anyone just stick the banner and people's joined. In that workshop identified two snakebites Case's. One the 18 years old boy got bitten by Russel viper before one month an ago. He got just remedies from local traditional healers. But necrosis seems fatal. We suggested to them for proper hospital treatment.” – from Maharashtra

“Today's morning we received a snake rescue call from a near village. After reaching snake rescue site we found a 2 feet spect. Cobra in water tank of toilet. During this scenario women’s , children, elders were gathered to see the snake and snake rescue. We rescued the snake by bagging method. After that we performed the on-site awareness about Snake's identification, ecology and snakebite management” - from Karnataka.

“On the occasion of world snake day we conducted a Awareness Session on Snakes and Snakebite by taking the precautionary measure and guidelines of Covid-19 pandemic the villagers gathers by maintaining social distancing. They get a nice knowledge and scientific knowledge about Snakes. I thanks to Indian snakes.org who gives me this opportunity by providing resources material for conducting a workshop on snakes”. - from Karnataka.

On the occasion of World Wildlife day we focused to aware tribal student's from remote area. We conducted workshop with the presence of zp school teacher, first in covid situation they allowed to conduct workshop. After workshop we received loud clapping from innocent little kids and at the teacher's gave us thanking words. -– from Maharashtra

Now we are planning to train more volunteers which will help to cover more crowd and demographics, and this will for sure save more lives- both SNAKE and HUMAN.

We are most deeply grateful to you for your patience and support which very much aid us in conducting these workshops and safe lives.