r/interesting • u/Took_myshayla • 4d ago

NATURE Indian man catching a king cobra

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u/FantasticAnus 4d ago edited 4d ago

There's a reason India has 50,000 snake bite deaths per year, which is roughly half of all snake bit deaths in the world.

Edit for the sake of those who think I am casting aspersions with regards to India or Indians:

My original comment wasn't to suggest this guy was foolish, rather that India is infested with highly venomous snakes, which increases the likelihood of people being bitten by said snakes, either purely through random encounter, or in scenarios like this where somebody is bravely trying to move the snake to a more appropriate area, away from people.

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u/Infinite-Call-2068 4d ago

finally someone said it. Our anti-venom infrastructure is the worst to top it. Most death occur due to lack of anti-venom of the snakes outside the big-4. Our polyvalent only works on the big 4 but India still has 100s of venomous species with region specific

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u/FalconIMGN 4d ago

Doesn't help when the biggest snakebite epicentre is the Sundarbans delta, where you often need to take a boat to get to the nearest health centre that houses antivenom drugs.

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u/st96badboy 4d ago

Oooh.... so that's where they release these big ones they catch.

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u/FalconIMGN 4d ago

Umm...no. That's not the case. It's not like this snake, rescued in South India, will be taken to East India about 2000 km away, and released in the Sundarbans delta.

The delta has one of the largest mangrove forest ecosystems in the world, and supports a diverse number of species, including tigers, saltwater crocodiles and king cobra.