News
Living with Snakes Exhibit
With the support of the Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Foundation, we have opened an interactive, bilingual exhibit on snakes and snakebite awareness. The outreach centre features exhibits covering an introduction to snakes, safe coexistence, common myths, snakebite first aid protocols, and a glimpse into research and fieldwork. Over the next three years, the initiative aims to create immersive learning experiences for school children in rural Karnataka for free, especially students from across the Mysore district.
The Snakebite Comic
There is widespread misinformation surrounding snakebite treatment. In a situation where time is of the essence, proper first aid and immediate hospitalisation saves lives. Even today, practices like tying a rope or going to alternative healers cause needless loss of life. As part of our outreach efforts in collaboration with The Habitats Trust, we have created an educational comic to teach accurate first aid response. The comic is currently available in English and Kannada, and we are in the process of translating it into five additional regional languages for wider distribution across India.
A free download of the comic is available on our resources page.
Launch of Serpentarium
In February 2022, we inaugurated our serpentarium in Hunsur, Karnataka, to provide high-quality venom free of charge that enables the production of effective and affordable antivenom production. With the ability to house around 400 snakes in enriched, naturalistic vivaria, the facility produces WHO-compliant venom while setting new standards in snake husbandry and research. We supply venom from Karnataka’s medically significant snakes to WHO-certified manufacturers, advancing both snake conservation research and life-saving antivenom production nationwide.
Mural Painting for Outreach and Awareness
To initiate conversations around snakes and snakebite, we are painting informative and interactive murals in collaboration with HSI - India. Panels on government office buildings inform viewers on how to avoid snakebite and what to do in case of a bite. A maze designed by artist Sangeetha Kadur, painted on numerous school walls, engages students to seek out the correct response to snakebite. These serve as part of larger campaign to create a better understanding on how to mitigate and manage human-snake conflict within the community.
Launch of Snake Rescuer Manual
The Karnataka Forest Department has Taken cognisance of the rising number of cases of human-snake interactions as well as the steep increase in number of individuals attending to these. As a first step toward implementing standard operating protocols and bringing in a system of reporting and monitoring, we have co-authored a training manual that will help snake rescuers improve their practices and efficacy while reducing stress to the snakes and enabling people to co-exist with snakes safely. We are also setting up the training and licensing process alongside this and we expect that snake rescuers in Karnataka will have all undergone training and be properly licensed soon.
King Cobra Venom Research
Since king cobras haven’t been medically significant in South India till now, there has been no antivenom produced for them and very little research done on their venom. However, king cobras are now a commonly encountered snake in rescues and are one of the main attractions in zoos and reptile parks, there is a need for a safety net for the people who work with them every day. We have created a naturalistic enclosure for our first king cobra, Aragon, and have extracted venom from him once. The Evolutionary Venomics Lab at the Indian Institute of Science is characterising and testing the venom against existing antivenom. More details soon.