The increase in snake bites in Bangladesh, particularly from the venomous Russell’s viper which was declared extinct in 2002 but whose population has grown since then, has sparked alarm, amid calls for calm from the authorities.
“This year, until June 12, We have received 16 patients and five of them have died“A spokesperson for the university hospital in the northern city of Rajshahi, Mahbubur Rahman, told Efe, noting that this center has recorded 69 deaths and 235 hospitalizations in a decade.
With the Bangladeshi media reporting on cases, the Minister of Health, Samanta Lal Sen, called for “don’t panic but be cautious” and assured that the country has sufficient antidote and means. “I can assure everyone that snakebite treatment has been delivered to districts and other areas, and health workers have been trained,” she said in a video message.
The Russell’s viperwhich is found in other Asian countries such as neighboring India, went from being considered extinct to appearing on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as “near threatened” in 2015, when it was present in 17 of the 64 districts of Bangladesh.
“It seems that the Russell’s viper population is increasing in Bangladesh, so to some extent panic is logical“said IUCN Asian country representative Muhammad Mehedi Ashan.
The Bangladesh Forest Department attributed this increase, in a message published on Saturday, to the reduction in the number of natural predators of snakes Due to the deforestation and to the extension of the crop fields, while calling for extreme precautions in case of sighting of a viper.
Firoj Jaman, professor of zoology at Dhaka University, said the number of snakes is also increasing. due to the increasingly frequent floods, since the viper is a “good swimmer.” Every year, approximately 7,500 people die from snake bites in Bangladesh, according to government data, a country that has about 28 venomous species.
