Why Tamil Nadu needs to protect Irula co-op
Jai Bhim, a recent Tamil movie, showed how the Irulars, who historically lived in the Nilgiris, skillfully track down venomous snakes. The Tamil-speaking tribals are renowned for their snake-catching abilities.
In 2017, two of their men were flown to Florida when the US authorities failed to curb the exploits of Burmese pythons at the Everglades swamp, threatening the existence of small mammals at the national park. The men waded through the largest subtropical wilderness in the world and caught some of the world's biggest snakes.
Back in Tamil Nadu, the Irula Snake Catchers' Industrial Co-operative Society Limited, a 44-year-old institution, is India's largest producer of snake venom. The society has 350 active members, all from the community. The society's snake farm is facing a big dilemma: there are no snakes, in the absence of government permits for catching them.
Every year, permission is given after examining various factors such as the reptile's population and the breeding season. In 2020–21, the forest department gave permission to capture only 5,000 snakes: 500 cobras, 1,000 kraits, 500 Russell's vipers, and 3,000 saw-scaled vipers. However, a government order was issued only on March 29, just two days before the fiscal ended. This year, the forest department gave temporary licences a few months ago to capture snakes, and so far, 2,203 snakes were caught for venom extraction. The process involves defreezing the venom and powdering it. The delay in issuing orders has forced several snake catchers to go for daily-wage jobs and ragpicking.
After this newspaper reported on the inordinate delay, the TN forest department moved quickly. An expert committee is being constituted, which will soon streamline the snake venom trade. The society being one of the few official suppliers of venom, several pharma companies and research institutes depend on the supply from TN. Delay in collection and supply of venom should not jeopardise production of anti-venom in India.