In a country with the highest number of snakebites in the world, a beginning has been made to improve surveillance of such reptilian attacks with an aim to improve treatment and save lives. It has happened with Karnataka—the state with the fifth highest number of snakebite cases annually— becoming the first state to declare snakebite a notifiable disease.
The move steps up surveillance at the state level to better inform policy decisions on the prevention, treatment and management of snakebites. This would help improve accuracy of snakebite reportage as it would mandate private and public hospitals to record each and every case. This, in turn, would help assess a more precise number of anti-venom vials needed, as well as map the regions and seasons in which snakebite cases are more common.
Although a good initiative that needs to be followed by other states too, it will be a major challenge. India hosts about 300 species of snakes, 60 among them known to be venomous, with the four most dreaded—the spectacled cobra, common krait (Bungarus caeruleus), saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus) and Russell's viper (Daboia russelii)—causing nine out of every 10 snakebite deaths in the country. India reports at least half the snakebite cases across the world.
Even by conservative estimates, the country annually reports about 81,000 cases of envenoming—a potentially life-threatening condition caused by toxins spreading through the body—due to snakebites, including about 11,000 fatalities. Shockingly, the precise number of snakebite cases in the country has never been known as it is estimated that at least half the cases go unreported.
The exposure is real and increasing. Agriculture and forestry are the first two activities for land use with 27.50 crore of the total 143-crore population in India depending on forest products for subsistence. Urbanisation is growing at 4 percent annually, unsettling semi-urban and rural areas where snake habitats are more common. Human exposure to snakes is on the rise.
This is a man-wildlife conflict that poses a challenge much more than that with wild animals such as elephants, tigers and leopards, which are well-reported. Proper surveillance, efficient and quick distribution of anti-venom vials and their storage, besides increasing public awareness about dealing safely with snakes would go a long way in keeping people and snakes safe from each other.