Snakebites kill at least 60,000 Indians a year. Karnataka shows how this could change

Over the last two decades more than a million Indians reported that they had been bitten by snakes on average every year. Nearly 60,000 of them died annually.

The numbers seem enormous. But the toll could be significantly reduced with appropriate grassroots interventions and policy reforms.

The key for framing effective policy, it is clear, is robust data and proper analysis. This helps determine what interventions are needed, where they must be made and with whom.

Karnataka is well-poised to serve as a model for India’s snakebite prevention and management initiatives. In February 2024, Karnataka’s Department of Health and Family Welfare declared snakebite a notifiable disease – a first in the country.

Notifying it under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 2020, means that any healthcare facility, government or private, must mandatorily report a snakebite incident on the Integrated Health Information Platform. This ensures that information is pooled in one central location.

Anecdotal references, opinions and personal experiences tend to drive decisions in the absence of data. In the case of snakebite, that can be the difference between complete recovery or a lifetime of struggle or loss of life.

The Karnataka government’s action is part of a coordinated effort that includes initiatives to identify and notify snakebite treatment facilities statewide, ensure doctor training at the grassroots,...

Read more