Snakes are dangerous but useful

Snake bites is a major problem in Sri Lanka, with nearly 60,000 people becoming victims annually. Only close to 40,000 receive treatment from the hospitals, but others resort to traditional methods often resulting in deaths.

Experts believe gaining a clear understanding of the venomous and non venomous snakes is of great importance to avoid bites and killing of the snakes.

Common Krait (Bungarus Caeruleus)

Snakes play a vital role in the eco system, killing snakes would result in many other species especially rodents dominating the system and causing many diseases and immense damage to the economy, especially in an agricultural country like ours.

Russells'Viper (Daboia russelii ruselii)

Ceylon Crait (Bungarus ceylonicus)

Saw sand viper(Echic carinatus carinatus)

Millard's hump-nosed viper (Hypnale nepa)

Ninety-seven per cent of the deaths are by the Cobra, Russell’s viper and Common India krait. Apart from the big three, the Sri Lankan krait and Saw scaled viper are categorized as deadly species though they don’t cause much deaths. The Merrem’s Hump nosed viper is now considered by the Sri Lanka Medical Association as a dangerous species.

The Environmental Foundation (EFL) together with the American Red Cross, Sri Lanka Red Cross, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Wildlife Conservation Society- Galle initiated a campaign in September 2009 to create awareness of snakes in Sri Lanka and to reduce the incidence of snake bites through educating vulnerable communities on snake identification and basic first aid.

Following this program, EFL received various requests from the general public and experts in the field to create more awareness on venomous snakes and the importance of conserving snakes.

EFL’s Chairperson Sharmini Ratwatte says they found an interested supporter to the program in the American Red Cross as they saw this as a very relevant Disaster Preparedness project.

She says raising awareness of an issue, which not only causes as much as 100 deaths a year but also consumes the health sectors resources in treating over 40,000 bites is of great importance.

She strongly believes the litigation aspect is very important as the rule of law is breached so often and the legitimate gatekeepers do nothing – we represent the public interest and the interest of our future generations.

EFL promoted publications on Sri Lanka’s Environmental Law with UNEP financial support and helping the judiciary in handling environmental cases.

EFL also worked on Disaster Risk Reduction. One was carried out with the National Building Research Organisation on training the Sri Lanka Red Cross and communities in landslide awareness and the other was a collaborative project with the Wildlife Conservation Society – Galle to promote awareness on Venomous Snake-bites in Sri Lanka.

"Our role here was mainly bridging the knowledge of the National Technical Organizations with the community outreach of the Humanitarian Agencies.

We currently have a team engaged on a project to increase the resilience of coastal and riverine communities to climate change and other threats, by conserving the ecosystems of the Maha Oya and associated coastal wetlands in Sri Lanka under the Mangroves for the Future Initiative administered through the IUCN," she says.

EFL also carried out awareness programs for various stakeholders – government officers, judiciary, legal professionals, police, school children etc. "Awareness and understanding of the issues is of paramount importance if we are to change the patterns of behavior that will degrade or destroy environment."

The project they started with the World Wildlife Fund/ American Red Cross partnership evolved to this phase where the success of the workshops and repeated requests from target groups highlighted the need to continue the project.

"This issue is crosscutting – critical to the Health sector on prevention of Deaths due to snakebites and environmentalists in ensuring conservation of snakes that are unknowingly killed due to misidentification or non-identification," she says.

She added: "Today, all Sri Lankans are proud and look forward to the benefits of peace after a 30-year war and embark on development, however, we need to be mindful that we share this country with countless other species – all of whom have to coexist with us – and preserving the Biodiversity that makes our land an eminently live able place.

We need to defend ourselves – from the threats of not just climate change, but also of man acting from ignorance or from a short-term perspective. This will not serve our children well and the impact of our wrong actions will creep on us slowly and insidiously."

Cobra (Naja Naja)