5th June 2024, Kathmandu: WWF Nepal has joined hands with the Rotary Club of Kathmandu Midtown on a campaign to prevent snake bites in Nepal. The Snake Bite Prevention Awareness Campaign aims to reduce snake bite occurrences and casualties in order 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.

“We are very proud of the success to date of our Snake Bite projects and we are very excited with the future potential of our partnership with WWF Nepal with all their networks and connections specifically throughout the Terai. We believe that WWF Nepal joining our program will greatly strengthen the impact of our project. Thank you very much, we are very grateful and proud of this partnership” said Ms. Lisa Choegyal, President of the Rotary Club of Kathmandu Midtown.

Snake bites result in around 40,000 injuries and almost 3000 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.

“We are very pleased to join the Snake Bite Prevention Awareness Campaign. Terai Arc is an award winning landscape with incredible biodiversity amongst a sea of people. The human wildlife conflicts with species such as tigers, and rhinos and elephants often come to the forefront but there is not enough attention being paid to the conflict with snakes. Snake bites 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 are a common occurrence as well. By preventing snake bites, the retaliatory killing of the snakes can also be mitigated. The campaign furthermore addresses curative measures in case of snake bites to save human lives as well

Considering that snake bite is a major public health issue, specially among the poor, rural and agricultural communities living in Terai, the Snake Bite Prevention Awareness Campaign is an effort to protect both humans and snakes by reducing human casualties across the nation.