Snakebites in India are mostly brushed away as a rural, poor-people problem. While the numbers are staggering, the bigger story is wrapped up in mythology, superstition, and abysmal public health infrastructure.
Published in Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene journal, the study is the first to use govt records of snakebite death compensations in the state.
Snakebites in India considered a ‘poor man’s problem’ with little investment in their prevention & treatment. Experts flag need to improve medical infra & focus on community awareness.
Snake venom is a toxin that can cause paralysis, kidney failure, disability, even death. According to researchers, many use it as substitute for opioid use & alcohol dependency.
The study sheds light on how oral venom systems evolved and proposes that mammalian salivary glands could be repurposed to produce venom under the right evolutionary circumstances.
According to a study, 1 in a 100 people were at risk of dying from a snakebite in hotspots such as Bihar, Jharkhand, MP, Odisha, UP, Andhra, Telangana, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
The collusion between the new class of bureaucrats, politicians, businessmen and trade union bosses perpetuates itself partly because of the short-run benefits and partly because they see no way out of the system, wrote author MH Mody in 1980.
IAF is firming up plans to revamp airlift capabilities with medium transport aircraft that will be assembled in India & serve as its main workhorse. Embraer is leading contender as of now.
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