Are snakebites rising in South Asia — and what’s responsible?

A snake charmer on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, in 2010. The practice is now banned in India and was outlawed in Pakistan by the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board in 2020 [File: Muhammed Muheisen]

In 1950, Roald Dahl wrote a short story titled Poison. The tale, set in colonial India and often found in deckle-edged children’s anthologies, tells a riveting story about racism.

In the story, a striped snake called a common krait slithers on the stomach of one of the main characters. The journey to save the character from the krait’s bite brings the plot to a panicky crescendo, to reveal that the poison was racism all along.