By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, June 8: WWF Nepal has joined hands with the Rotary Club of Kathmandu Midtown on a campaign to prevent snakebites in Nepal. 

The Snakebite Prevention Awareness Campaign aims to reduce snakebite occurrences and casualties to protect both human lives as well as snakes. 

Under this campaign, informative posters in local languages will be displayed across snake habitats, accompanied by training videos regarding safe behaviours, according to a press statement issued by WWF on Thursday.

Snakebites result in around 40,000 injuries and almost 3,000 deaths per year in Nepal. At the same time, snakes are integral to maintaining balance in the ecosystem as they play the role of both predator and prey. Hence, modelling safe behaviours to protect both people and snakes is important for the wellbeing of both humans and nature, the statement said.

“We are very pleased to join the Snakebite Prevention Awareness Campaign. Tarai Arc is an award-winning landscape with incredible biodiversity amongst a sea of people. The human-wildlife conflicts with species such as tigers, rhinos and elephants often come to the forefront but there is not enough attention being paid to the conflict with snakes. Snakebites kill in thousands, not dozens. Therefore, it is very important to spread awareness proactively right before monsoon” remarked Dr. Ghanashyam Gurung, Country Representative of WWF Nepal.

Due to fear, retaliatory killing of snakes is a common occurrence as well. By preventing snakebites, the retaliatory killing of the snakes can also be mitigated. The campaign furthermore addresses curative measures in case of snakebites to save human lives as well.

Considering that snakebite is a major public health issue, especially among the poor, rural and agricultural communities living in Tarai, the Snakebite Prevention Awareness Campaign is an effort to protect both humans and snakes by reducing human casualties across the nation, the statement read.