Divya Baniya
With rampant urbanization and human encroachment, the chances of one of us encountering snakes is likely to increase because of their habitat loss and fragmentation. On 12th Jan 2022 at around 2 pm, one of my friends phoned me and asked me to get her connected to a snake rescuer in the city. Upon arriving at her home, Sandeep, a snake enthusiast, and a forestry undergraduate, who started rescuing snakes owing to his love for reptiles, took out his “DIY-ed” rescue box – a candy jar with small holes at regular intervals on the top half of the jar. He then wore his yellow bowling gloves and attentively started looking for the snake in the
small hole made on the wall partially covered by moss. Before long, the juvenile Common Trinket was safely tucked into his rescue box. Afterward, he briefly explained about the snake to my friends’ parents and released it in a nearby area safe for both the snake and humans. Sandeep doesn’t call him a rescuer but an enthusiast, working for the conservation of these species from his individual level.
It is quite common for us to encounter a snake, as the snake mainly feeds on rodents and human settlement attracts rodents, subsequently resulting in the interaction of snakes with humans. With rampant urbanization and human encroachment, the chances of one of us encountering snakes is likely to increase because of their habitat loss and fragmentation. This interaction, however, might not always be positive. Snakes are considered a life-threatening species in our society and are barely welcomed around and understandingly so because of the plethora of snakebite cases in Nepal. The severe symptoms of snakebite which range from dizziness, vomiting, and gum bleeding, respiratory failure to even death are quite enough to deploy fear among people towards this species but these snakebites are not as deadly as we think. The timely anti-venom treatment has proved to be very effective against such snake bites and has saved lives of many people
across the country.
Snakes are often ill-reputed, mercilessly killed, and often talked about in our society. “People would kill non-venomous snakes too, thinking them to be venomous”, said Biswash, a 22-yearold, who has rescued more than 100 snakes from Hetauda. People often confuse all snakes as being venomous and deadly but that holds very little truth. Nepal hosts 89 species of snake among which 72 species are non-venomous. Cobras, Kraits, and Vipers are the common venomous snakes accounting for the majority of snakebite cases in Nepal. But these venomous snakes account for only 19 % of snakes found in the country and more than half of the snakes
found in the country are non-venomous.
Snake plays a great role in controlling the population of rodents found in and around the human settlement and even the snake itself, as King Cobra feeds on other snakes. The venom of snakes holds thousands of potential as the medicines derived from the protein of snake’s venom are believed to treat brain injuries, strokes, kidney disease, and even diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Despite such importance, the retaliatory killing of this species added to their habitat loss has threatened their overall population.
In reducing the retaliatory killings of snakes, snake rescuers come in very handy. Every district has some rescuers, who are called upon by local people when they are aware of the whereabouts of such rescuers. These rescuers relocate snakes to a safe distance from human settlements. Even though relocating snakes by rescuers is not a permanent solution as snakes might eventually come into human settlements in search of their prey, rescuers help to minimize the conflict in the short term and educate people on human snake co-existence. The role of rescuers in managing the human snake interaction is often neglected by the government. These rescuers work at the grass-root level and hold great power. They give ideas about the venomous and non-venomous snakes and ask people to call for help without causing any harm to the species. These efforts may seem very little but have a great impact on the conservation of snakes. These rescuers should therefore be provided with proper equipment, training, insurances policies and certain incentives from the government to encourage them and to pursue rescuing as a career.
Snakes have long been misunderstood and always looked upon as deadly species but awareness among people can slowly debunk the myths and bring changes in our perspective towards this species. Most of the death associated with snakebite in Nepal is due to delays in reaching the hospital, and self-treatments rather than the lack of treatment for snake bites. Therefore, motorcycle volunteering and educating people about the dos and don’ts during snakebite can lessen such deaths from taking place. The government of Nepal has prepared a national guideline for snakebite management to ensure effective management of snakebite in the country but there’s
yet a lot to be done and by collaborating with rescuers, and most of all by educating people, we can certainly co-exist with this mistreated species.
[Divya is pursuing her bachelor’s degree at the Institute of Forestry, Hetauda]