India was pooh-poohed as ‘the land of snake charmers’ not many moons ago but it has now been nicknamed ‘the snakebite capital of the world.’ With the long, limbless reptiles without eyelids hiding here, there and everywhere, the tropical country accounts for as many as 50,000 of the 125,000 fatalities every year across the globe.
Indeed, the serpents coiled up in trees and fields as also under rocks and near water bodies or even in human-constructed habitats like basements, old houses, crawl spaces, wood poles and sheds fling their fatal fangs into some 250,000 people worldwide year after year, including the record number of 160,000 Indians being stung and left maimed by the ophidians. About 80 per cent of the colubrine attacks happen in the rural areas and the victims are males in the 20-40 age group with the result that the snakebites lead to a heavy financial burden—hospital bills and loss of wages -....
