Lucknow, (Samajweekly) In the past fortnight, 25 persons have died due to snake bites in Uttar Pradesh, according to data from the relief commissioner’s office.
Snake sightings in six different localities in Lucknow prompted residents to call the snake rescue helpline on Thursday.
Snake bites take place in the monsoon season as with waterlogging and rain, the reptiles lose their natural habitats.
Ever since the onset of the monsoon season, snake bite incidents have been reported from Pilibhit, Balrampur, Kanpur Dehat, Etah, Sonbhadra, Deoria, Mainpuri, Lakhimpur Kheri, Jhansi, and Siddharth Nagar where a snake charmer was bitten, among others.
As for Lucknow, on Thursday, calls for snake rescues were made from Ahmamau, near the Amity College and HCL campuses, Takrohi, Chinhat and Vrindavan Yojana.
According to relief commissioner Naveen Kumar’s office, from June 27 till date, there have been 25 deaths from snake bites in the state — which makes it 25 deaths in less than 20 days.
Sitapur has had the highest number of deaths due to snake bites, recording 5 deaths since the monsoon began.
Sonbhadra, Deoria and Amethi have recorded 2 deaths each and Azamgarh, Ballia, Banda, Firozabad, Ghazipur, Gonda, Hardoi, Kannauj, Kanpur Dehat, Kaushambhi, Lakhimpur, Pilibhit, Rae Bareli and Sambhal reported one each.
“The number of cases has not increased, rather the number of reported cases has gone up,” said Aditya Tiwari, founder of Paryavarnam, a group of snake rescuers in Uttar Pradesh.
Paryavarnam has teams in Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Hardoi, Sitapur and a few other districts.
“We get rescue calls the year round, but they shoot up by at least 50 per cent when the monsoon arrives. This time, we have had the highest number of cases from Ahmamau and the Cantonment area,” he explained.
Of the 19 different species of snakes found in the UP region, only four are venomous — namely, the Spectacled Cobra, Russel’s Viper, Common Krait, and the less commonly found Saw-scaled Viper.
