Cobra Killing Statistics in Bangladesh 2017

Ashraful Kabir, M.

Department of Biology, Saidpur Cantonment Public College, Nilphamari, Bangladesh

*Correspondence to: Dr. Ashraful Kabir, M., Department of Biology, Saidpur Cantonment Public College, Nilphamari, Bangladesh.

Copyright © 2019 Dr. Ashraful Kabir, M. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cobra Killing Statistics

Source: The Daily Prothom Alo (13-16 July 2017)

Discussion
The temperature of the northern regions of Bangladesh is almost 350-370 F which is suitable for snakes’ activities. There were 30.77% poisonous and 69.23% non-poisonous snakes’ in Bangladesh with their three families [3]. In Bangladesh, out of 82 species 28 are venomous and 12 are sea snakes [2]. Estimates indicate ˃5 million bites annually by venomous snakes worldwide where ˃12500 deaths [8]. Some research work have completed on snakes taxonomy, status, distribution, and epidemiology of snake bite [1,7,10]. According WHO, India has the highest number of snake bites in the world with 35,000-50,000 annually [6,11]. In Bangladesh, this is 4.3 per 100000 an annual incidence and case fatality is 20% [9]. There are many superstitions about the snakes are still continuing in the country [5]. The powerful jewel of the snakes’ head, snakes dance by whistling in some movies and milk sucking of rat snake from cow is common and famous story about snake of Bangladesh. Snakes are odd pet so this is not suitable at home and playing with them [4].

Conclusions
When flood comes in Bangladesh for water snakes are come out from the hole. People bite snakes for getting fear. Moreover, cobra snakes are deadly poisonous so that their fate is almost death. In our country, all medical colleges should preserve adequate antivenoms. In rural areas, if snake bites, most affected persons cannot come in hospital in proper time. Ultimately they show death. Some illegal snake farms are growing and they have no training and do not know about snakes.

Recommendations
For avoiding unusual killing of snakes we should maintain following steps-

• Before flood we will take decision for rehabilitating those snakes
• We should import lots of antivenoms
• We should aware about snakes’ bite
• We should focus on the primary treatment of snake bites
• We should not consult with any snake charmer for the treatment of affected person
• Zoology department of any universities or colleges should alert in flood season
• Vet/Livestock officer, zoo authority, wildlifer, and zoology teacher and student can play a vital role in any emergencies

Bibliography

1. Ahsan, M. F. (1998). Country report for Bangladesh-Herpetofauna of Bangladesh: present status, distribution and conservation. In: A. de Silva (ed), Biology and conservation of the amphibians, reptiles and their habitats in South Asia (Proceedings of the International Conference on the Biology and Conservation of Amphibians and Reptiles of South Asia, Sri Lanka, August 1-5, 1996).
2. Faiz, M. A., Hossain, M., Amin, R., Ghose, A. & Basher, A. (2008). National guideline of management of snake bite. 2nd edition, Dhaka: DGHS.
3. Kabir, M. A. (2013). Snakes’ availability and its biting record in Rangpur Carmichael College, Bangladesh. J. Biol. Chem. Research., 30(1), 319-328.
4. Kabir, M. A. (2016). Human cruelty and love to animals. Intl. J. of Res. Studies in Zoology., 2(2), 1-8.
5. Kabir, M. A. (2014). Superstitions and traditional uses of animal in Bangladesh. Standard Journal of Biological Sciences, 1(1), 5-8.
6. Kasturiratne, A., Wickremasinghe, A. R., de Silva, N., Gunawardena, N. K. & Pathmeswaran, A. (2008). The global burden of snakebite: a literature analysis and modelling based on regional estimates of envenoming and deaths. PLoS Med., 5(11), 218.
7. Khan, M. A. R. (2004). Checklist of the herpetofauna of Bangladesh. Cobra, 57, 1-29.
8. Paul, S., Auerbach, Robert, L. & Norris (2008). Disorders Caused by Reptile Bites and Marine Animal Exposure. In Fauci, A. S., Braunwald, E., Kasper, D. L. editors. Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. 17^th edition. New York: The McGraw- Hill Companies, 2741-2748.
9. Sarker, M., Sarker, N. & Patwary, S. (1999). Epidemiological survey of snake bite incidences in Bangladesh. Dhaka University J. Biol. Sci., 8, 53-68.
10. Sarker, N. J. & Sarker, S. U. (1993). Observation of some snakes of Bangladesh. Tiger paper, 20(3), 17-21.
11. Warrell, D. A. (1999). WHO Guidelines for the clinical management of snake bites in the South East Asia Region. SE Asian J. Trop. Med. Publ. Health., 30(Suppl 1), 1-83.