This Simple Initiative Is Saving Snakes as well as Snakebite Victims in India

Louies and his team have started a pilot project to reduce snake-bite deaths at the remote village of Pithora in
Chhattisgarh. This village sees more than 100 snakebite cases every year, making anti-venom availability a
major issue.
As a part of the project, Indiansnakes.org has adopted the village health centre and connected it directly with
Pune-based antivenom manufacturer Premium Serums and Vaccines Pvt Ltd. Local doctors have also been
trained in snakebite treatment and a life-support system has been provided at the health centre.
Apart from this, local communities have also been made aware about taking precautions like avoiding sleeping
on the floor, taking torches while going outside and storing food grains properly to keep rats away, whose
presence attracts snakes. All this has resulted in the successful treatment of all snakebite victims who have
come to the health centre – there has been no snakebite death in Pithora over two years! Following this, two
more hospitals in the Mandla and Balaghat districts of Madhya Pradesh have been adopted by Indiansnakes.org
As Louies says, the snake-human conflict is not just a health problem, it is also an important conservation
issues. As long as snakebites keep killing people, it will be difficult to convince people to save snakes. This
makes it all the more important that simple, scientific and effective measures are taken to increase awareness.
As can be seen from the successful implementation of Indiansnakes’ pilot project, awareness can indeed save
lives!