A radio telemetry project to study the behaviour of Russell’s vipers, a venomous variety accounting for the highest number of snake bites in India, recently concluded in rural parts of Hunsur taluk in Mysuru district.
The project taken up jointly by Humane Society International (HSI)/India, an animal protection organisation, and Liana Trust, an NGO engaged in conservation in rural areas, involved surgical insertions of radio transmitters in 22 Russell’s vipers found in agricultural landscape of Hunsur taluk.
“We followed them for a period of three years to understand their behaviour better. The study was aimed at understanding their life cycle, their range (the distance of its movements), and other aspects,” Sumanth Bindumadhav, director, Wildlife Department, HSI/India, told The Hindu.
“The study just concluded and we are analysing the results. We will be in a position to announce them in about two weeks’ time,” he said.
As part of the study, radio transmitters were surgically inserted by a veterinarian into a small cavity near the tail of Russell’s vipers found in agricultural fields of Hunsur. “It does not obstruct their activity in any way,” he said.
“So far nobody tried it. Our understanding of snake behaviour was so far coming from people are handling snakes. That is not the same behaviour when they respond to us when we handle it. They don’t exhibit the same behaviour when they are in the field by themselves,” he said.
The radio telemetry project is part of the Snakebite Mitigation Work taken up by HIS/India and Liana Trust in Hunsur, where a mass community outreach programme had also been launched since December 2018 through posters, wall paintings, community meetings etc., besides capacity building of medical fraternity in the latest protocols for treatment.
As part of the project, about 1,200 pairs of snakebite prevention kits, including knee-length gumboots and solar lanterns, were distributed to beneficiaries in the region, Mr. Bindumadhav added.
HIS/India pointed out that Mysuru district, with a population of around 30 lakh, having several protected areas and irrigated arable land was a near-ideal place to develop a model as it was representative of most other districts in the State. “Being a predominantly agrarian economy, the district witnesses several instances of snakebite in agricultural fields, and several instances of human-snake conflict in the City. A combination of these is well-suited to develop a localised solution that could be replicated and adapted elsewhere. Furthermore, the presence of our collaborator Liana Trust in Hunsur taluk ensures sustainability of the programme,” HIS/India said.
HIS/India has commended the Government of Karnataka for becoming the first State in India to declare snakebite as a notifiable disease. Half of global snakebite deaths occur in India, making it the snakebite capital of the world.
“By mandating reporting of this disease, the Karnataka government has ensured that data on a larger volume of snakebite cases will be captured to begin with. This, coupled with other interventions, will go a long way in meaningfully addressing snakebites, reducing the animosity that exists between humans and snakes, eventually leading to fewer mortality in both,” said Shubhra Sotie, wildlife research and policy specialist at HIS/India.
