New Delhi, May 14 -- As temperatures rise across India, public attention understandably turns to heatwaves, water scarcity and power demand. Yet another danger often intensifies during hotter months, though it is not confined to any single season: snakebite. It kills quietly, disproportionately and often invisibly, taking thousands of lives each year. While summer conditions can increase encounters in many regions, snakebite remains a year-round public health crisis driven by poverty, weak healthcare access, environmental change and chronic policy neglect.
Recent incidents underline the urgency. For instance, in Kerala, at least six snakebite-related deaths were reported from different parts of the state within a week. In Kuttiady in Kozhikode district, five venomous snakes were reportedly found inside a single house, a reminder that human-snake encounters are no longer confined to forests or farmlands. During hotter months, reptiles often seek shade, moisture and cooler shelter, sometimes bringing them closer to homes, storage spaces and water sources. But the wider truth is that snakebite threatens communities across seasons, especially where housing is unsafe, livelihoods depend on outdoor labour, and treatment remains distant.
India bears the world's heaviest snakebite burden, accounting for nearly half of global snakebite deaths according to the World Health Organisation. A study estimated about 1.2 million snakebite deaths in India between 2000 and 2019, averaging around 58,000 deaths annually, well over 150 every day, making it a continuing national tragedy rather than a seasonal anomaly. Globally, snakebite envenoming remains one of the deadliest yet most neglected health crises, with the WHO estimating 4.5 to 5.4 million bites each year, including 1.8 to 2.7 million envenoming cases, causing 81,000 to 138,000 deaths and leaving up to 400,000 survivors with amputations, blindness, severe scarring or other permanent disabilities.
The burden falls overwhelmingly on the poor. Snakebite is a crisis of inequality in which access to treatment is too often a privilege rather than a right. It affects rural labourers, tribal communities, fisherfolk, plantation workers, women gathering firewood and children walking barefoot. A bite that might be survivable in a well-connected urban setting can become fatal in a remote village simply because help arrives too late.
India's rural economy helps explain the scale of the problem. Farmers working in paddy fields, plantations, irrigation channels and crop storage zones are especially vulnerable. Many bites occur at night when people walk outdoors without lighting or sleep on floors. Poor sanitation and unmanaged waste can attract prey species, increasing snake presence.
Summer intensifies these risks in many areas. High temperatures may drive snakes toward cooler indoor corners, wells or water tanks. People often sleep outdoors or keep doors open for ventilation. Agricultural workers shift schedules to dawn or dusk to avoid peak heat, increasing movement when some snakes are active. Children also spend more time outdoors during school breaks. But monsoon, harvest activity and year-round habitat disruption create danger too.
Climate change is likely to worsen the challenge. Rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, droughts and floods can alter snake habitats and movement patterns. Floodwaters may displace snakes into homes and shelters, while drought can push both people and wildlife toward shrinking water sources. Expanding settlements into ecological edges creates new zones of contact. Snakebite policy can no longer be separated from climate resilience and land-use planning.
Despite the scale of the crisis, India's response remains too narrow. Public discussion often treats anti-snake venom as the singular answer, and antivenom is indeed indispensable when given correctly and in time. But antivenom alone cannot solve the emergency. Many victims never receive treatment quickly enough. Families may first turn to traditional remedies, lose crucial time arranging transport, or travel long distances to facilities that are inadequately staffed. In neurotoxic bites from cobras or kraits, respiratory paralysis can develop rapidly. Viper bites may trigger bleeding disorders, shock or kidney injury. Delay is deadly.
Even where antivenom is available, many facilities are not equipped to use it effectively. Stocks may be inconsistent, cold-chain storage unreliable, staff inadequately trained, and critical support such as ventilators or dialysis unavailable; a vial on a shelf is not the same as a functioning treatment system.
There is also a scientific gap: India's polyvalent antivenoms have historically focused on the "big four" snakes - Indian cobra, common krait, Russell's viper and saw-scaled viper - despite the country's far wider snake diversity and regional variations in venom, underscoring the need for stronger research, region-specific formulations and continuous quality review.
Survival is not the only measure of harm. Thousands who live through snakebite are left with amputations, chronic pain, kidney damage, disability, trauma and debt. For poor households, one bite can become a multi-year economic catastrophe.
What India needs is a comprehensive public health strategy. Prevention must come first. Safer rural housing with sealed entry points, rodent control, raised sleeping arrangements and proper storage can reduce indoor bites. Reliable electricity and street lighting are important preventive tools. So are footwear campaigns, torch use at night and school-based awareness on avoiding risky contact with debris, vegetation and dark corners.
Rapid access to care is equally essential. High-incidence districts need mapped referral systems, ambulance networks, 24-hour stabilisation centres and trained frontline staff, with resources directed to known hotspots. India also needs far better data, as many deaths occur outside hospitals or are misclassified. Real-time district surveillance linking hospitals, primary health centres and community reporting would enable smarter planning and faster intervention. Antivenom policy must be modernised through research investment, predictable manufacturing, strict quality assurance and regionally effective products. Rehabilitation should be recognised as part of treatment through prosthetics, physiotherapy, renal monitoring, mental health care and livelihood support.
Even states with stronger health indicators are not immune. Snakebite is no longer confined to poorer regions or remote forests. Rapid urbanisation near green belts, waste accumulation that attracts rodents, fragmented habitats and expanding settlements are bringing snakes into closer contact with people. Public attitudes, therefore, need to be balanced: snakes should neither be demonised nor romanticised. Most species are non-venomous and play important ecological roles, especially in rodent control, so indiscriminate killing is harmful. But reverence without safety awareness can also cost lives. Coexistence must be guided by science through rescue networks, habitat management, public education and emergency preparedness.
India has addressed other neglected health burdens when political will aligned with strong public systems, and snakebite deserves the same seriousness. The country should launch a national mission combining awareness campaigns, clinical training, emergency transport, hotspot mapping, research funding and survivor rehabilitation. Every season brings different risks, but snakebite remains a year-round crisis until policy changes. It may be one of humanity's oldest threats, but in modern India, many deaths still reflect contemporary failures: delayed care, unequal access and official neglect. Antivenom can save lives, but only a stronger public health system can prevent India from losing tens of thousands more.
Views expressed are personal. The writer is a policy analyst and a columnist
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.