The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed Health and Family Welfare departments of Centre and Odisha to furnish a detailed report on preventive measures and compensation for snake bike victims.
Radhakant Tripathy, a human rights lawyer, had moved the NHRC stating that India recorded annual snakebite deaths of about 58,000 across the country while many victims of snakebites were not duly compensated.
Mr. Tripathy had drawn attention on deaths of three students who had died in snakebite while they were sleeping in coaching classes. The students’ deaths were reported from Keonjhar and Cuttack districts.
“Among all disaster-related causalities in Odisha, snakebite deaths alone accounted for more than 40% of the total disaster deaths. Snakebite deaths in Odisha became more than doubled in 1159 in the year 2021 from 522 in 2015, especially due to shortage of anti-snake venom stocks in the government-run-health facilities even in the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack,” he submitted.
The office of Special Relief Commissioner, Odisha, said as many as 7,609 snakebite deaths were recorded in past nine years since 2015-16. Mayurbhanj with 640 snakebite deaths has highest number of fatalities among 30 districts. In past nine years, 2020-21 was the worst year when reports about 1192 snakebite deaths were received.
Mr. Tripathy said, “On an average of 58,000 deaths occurred per year in our country due to snakebite, 70% of deaths are reported in low-altitude areas of nine States – Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Gujarat. India’s snakebite deaths accounts almost half the total number of annual deaths in the world.”
He had urged the commission to instruct immediate payment of compensation for next of kin of snakebites. The lawyer also urged NHRC for its instruction for notification of snakebite deaths as notifiable disease in the integrated disease surveillance programme.
The NHRC asked the authorities to submit an action taken report to the Commission within eight weeks by December 16.
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