India is home to more than 300 species of snakes, with 67 species being identified as venomous. However only 15 species have reported human fatalities with the big four, namely the Spectacled Cobra, Common Krait, Russell’s viper and Saw scaled viper being responsible for maximum deaths and disabilities.
With a large number of annual mortalities, India is considered the “death by snakebite capital of the world”. A study published in 2020 estimated that from 2000 to 2019, there were around 1.2 million deaths caused by snakebites in India, with an average of 58,000 fatalities each year. However, it’s difficult to determine the exact number of snakebite deaths as many cases go unreported or untreated.
To address these issues, the Snakebite Healing and Education Society (SHE-India) was founded in 2014. This organization brings together experts from different fields, including snakebite expert doctors, human rights activists, scientists, herpetologists, bureaucrats, lawyers, NGO partners, and administrators, to work towards reducing the burden of snakebites in India. The organization’s goal is to work with all affected states to train medical teams, ASHA workers, village leaders, teachers and forest personnel, and to propagate our snakebite prevention and first-aid educational materials in 14 regional languages to raise awareness with communities and help reduce the burden.