How to avoid snake bites? Quick tips to avoid snake bites in India and else where

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Snake bite is a major cause of death in parts of South East Asian countries including India. The incidence
of snake bite deaths are more in rural areas. It has been the most calamitous form of human-animal
conflict on earth in present times. Realizing the graveness of the issue, World Health Organization has
included snake bite as one of the neglected tropical disease.

Common Bronzeback Tree Snake (Dendrelaphis tristis)

Undergoing medical treatment after getting bitten by a snake can be a risky business since it involves complex steps like correctly identifying the snake, assessing the type of poison of a snake found in a particular geography and administering enough doses of the accurate antivenom. So it is always preferable to avoid snake bites.

Here is a set of tips that may help you to avoid snake bites.

Know your snakes

• First and foremost, do have adequate knowledge about snakes in the locality –type of snakes, 
  where they are found usually, at what time and whether they are poisonous or not. For example, in forest fringes in the Western Ghats, people know that King Cobras are usually found in areas near the streams or cool places with thick under growth. They are often found in rubber plantations covered by thick legume plants grown to keep the plantation cool. Similarly, knowing that Kraits are active usually in the night unlike Cobras which are day hunters, helps avoid an unhappy confrontation with them.

• Once you know where they are found, you may avoid those places.

• Similarly, don’t step over a snake, don’t try to handle a snake or even don’t try to irritate a snake. A huge majority of snake bites incidents have taken place due to these reasons.

• Never try to corner a snake in an enclosed space. It will be left with no other option.

Lycodon aulicus snake inside the house

Make sure there are no snakes inside the house

• Keep your chicken or livestock away from home. Snakes often try to hunt chicken. Keeping them within the house may be inviting snakes for a feast inside.

• Do not encourage rats inside houses – they bring snakes behind. Use rat-proof containers; keep your granary away from the house.

• Check and remove tree branches touching the house.

• Check the places where snakes may hide inside the house, like large unsealed spaces under floor boards. Kraits simply love such places.

• Keep an eye on your pets. Cats often bring half dead snakes inside home to play and eat later.

• Avoid sleeping on the ground. Kraits have reportedly bitten people who were sleeping on the ground by mistaking them for a moving prey and at times when the sleeping man has rolled over the snake, hurting it.
• If sleeping on the ground, use insecticide – impregnated mosquito net, tucked under the mattress. It does not repel the snake, bur reduces risk.

In the courtyard

• Avoid rubble, logs, rubbish to be heaped up near house. It gives better hiding places for snakes.

Lycodon aulicus snake on the door

• Keep the grass around the house short or cleared since it gives no attractive space for snakesclose to the house. Keep the bushes around the house cleared.

• Be cautious when you are around a pond or water body. High chances of meeting a snake here since the water body attract many favorite items in snake’s menu including toads and frogs.

• Keep an ear and eye for what the birds or the cat do. They usually detect the presence of snakes better than us.

In the country side

• Be cautious while walking in night, especially after heavy rains - high chances of snake confrontation. Be ’enlightened’ with a torch or any portable light source.

• Heavy rains usually wash away snakes into drainage  or gutters in the road edges. They often flush out snakes from their burrows. So be more vigilant when you walk, after heavy rains, especially in dim light.

• Use of shoes or boots and long trousers are always recommended than being bare footed or using sandals, especially while walking through rods with thick undergrowth on both sides.

• Be careful with logs or stones. Snakes often hide beneath them or even sun bath on their sides. So don’t try to cross them over straight – you may step on a snake. Stop on them, make sure nobody is running away from beneath, and then proceed.

For people behind the wheels

• Please don’t intentionally run over a snake crossing the road. They are also living creatures with a right to live like you. Moreover, a half dead snake on the road may be a dangerous coincidence for the next passerby.

Russell's viper (Daboia russelii)
Image: Indian Biodiversity Talks

• All ran over snakes are not left dying on the road. They sometime get trapped under vehicle, reaching to your parking lot or garage posing threats to your dear ones.

• In hilly areas, snakes often find vehicles a warm place to rest comfortably. Check the vehicle well in advance.

Sea snake bite

• Avoid touching any snakes trapped in fishing nets or lines. Often it is difficult to identify the head and tail of a sea snake which makes any business with them extremely dangerous. 

• Avoid taking bathes or going for a swim at places like estuaries or ponds where there are repeated instances of finding venomous snakes.

Even a dead snake can bite you!

We are not kidding. Even a dead snake with a severely damaged head can give you a fatal dose of
venom if you are handling it carelessly. According to WHO guidelines on how to avoid snakebites, it

Indian Cobra (Naja naja)
Image: Indian Biodiversity Talks

is reported that there were instances in which mere scratches caused by the fangs of dead snake’s causing sever health conditions, including fatalities. So, be careful even when carrying or handling (only if necessary) snakes which looks to be dead or actually dead.


Above all, don’t try to irritate snakes, just leave them to live their life.

The tips were collected from the WHO guidelines, expert opinion and observations.

Reference: David A Warrell (2010), Guidelines for the management of snake-bites, word Health
Organization, South East Asia Regional Office.

Antivenom production and snake bite treatment in India ineffective, finds recent study

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What happens if a King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) bites you during a trek through an Indian forest? You are left to die even if you reach a hospital within minutes, since there is virtually no  antivenom produced in India for wide distribution to treat King cobra bites, shows a new study. Leave alone King cobra, which is a rare sight reserved for lucky ones, a usual Indian cobra bite from a North Indian city can also finish you off for similar reasons.

Antivenom production and snake bite treatment in a country which is home to several species of fatally poisonous snakes and an upper estimated annual snake bite deaths of 50000, are in a pathetic state, indicates a research article published in the latest issue of current Science journal.

Indian Cobra (Naja naja)
Image: Indian Biodiversity Talks

The study conducted by famous herpetologist Romulus Whittaker and his son and conservation biologist Samir Whittaker points out that the  antivenom production in India is based on the venom of the snakes present in the southern part of the country which makes it less effective in the treatment of snakebites in other parts of the country.

Venom supply, rate and quality of antivenom production, antivenom potency are way too low than the requirements. According to the article, a major part of the snake venom is sourced from Irula Snake Catchers Industrial Cooperative Society in Chennai which is the largest legally acknowledged entity providing venom for the seven antivenom producing pharmaceutical companies in the country. It causes two issues – scarcity in venom supply and ineffective venom samples for antivenom production for snake bite treatment in other regions.

Geographical difference in snake venom composition

In India, there are four major snakes which– Indian Cobra (Naja naja), Common Krait (Bungarus caeruleus), Russell's viper (Daboia russelii) and Indian saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus) – known as the big four -which can deliver fatal bites.

However, the strength of venom differs even within the same species in different parts of the country. According to the study, Russel’s Viper found in northern and western parts of the country are twice as venomous as their southern counter parts. The case is same with Indian Cobra. Cobras from eastern parts of India are more venomous than those from other parts. It makes the antivenom made by venom samples from South India less effective in other parts, often causing death of the victim.

Indian Cobra (Naja naja) found in South India
Image: Indian Biodiversity Talks

The difference in the venom composition among the sub species among the four most venomous snakes is also causing the issue. The study shows that there are at least four cobras, eight different species of Kraits, two sub species of Saw-scaled vipers and a single species of Russell ’s viper in the country, as per most latest taxonomical data.  Further studies should be carried out to understand the difference in the venom composition between these species and the effectiveness of presently producing antivenom against these different species, it says.

Other venomous snakes in India

The study also indicates that there could be a need to produce antivenom for at least some other snake species found in India since they also found to be capable of injecting lethal amounts of venom. Since there are rare reported instances of death from bites of sea snakes and King Cobra, presently there is no antivenom produced in India to treat any such situation.  “The average venom yields indicate that, although antivenom is not made specifically for these species or variants, all of them can inject potentially lethal quantities of venom”, says the study.

Need of the hour

The changing potency of antivenom produced in India is also an aspect which needs urgent attention. According to the study, the potency of cobra antivenom was 0.60 mg/ml before 1950s which has now turned into just 0.60 mg/ml while that of Russell’s Vipers was 2 mg/ml earlier and 0.45 mg/ml now. The standards of antivenom potency and quality of antivenom production in the country should be refined based on further studies, points out the researchers.

The study calls for urgent need to make sufficient units to produce venom for producing enough quantities of antivenom in India, by making snake catchers’ societies in line with the Irula society. This will help meet the treatment needs of bites from regionally present species more effectively and will curb clandestine venom producing operations that take place in the country now, says the study.  

Read More: How to avoid snakebites