How Kerala manages to bring down snakebite deaths with Sarpa app

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala used to report about 130 to 150 snakebite deaths until 2020. However, over the last few years, it came down drastically and to 30 by 2024. Thanks to the Sarpa mobile app, an initiative of the Kerala forest department.

The Sarpa mobile app serves as a platform for swiftly connecting with authorised snake rescuers, provides proper advice on the treatment for bites by various types of snakes and also dismisses a host of misbeliefs and unscientific treatment methods. Information regarding various types of snakes are also provided through the app.

So far around 54,000 snake rescue operations could be carried out through the app Sarpa, which means snake.

Sarpa logo

"Timely and proper treatment is the crucial aspect in preventing snake bite deaths. Sarpa app helps in serving this purpose and as a result the snake bite deaths could be drastically brought from 130-150 range to 30 per year," assistant conservator of forest and Sarpa app coordinator Mohammed Anvar told DH.

Impressed by the effectiveness of the app, many states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Odisha, have taken steps to replicate the model. A snake rescue guidelines brought out by Kerala in 2020 had led the way to similar guidelines being issued by Karnataka as well as the Ministry of environment and forest in the due courses, he said.

The death of a ten-year-old girl in Wayanad after a snakebite in her classroom in 2019 and the murder of 25-year-old woman, Uthara, by her husband Sooraj by inflicting Cobra bite in Kollam district were, incidents that prompted the state forest department to come out with the mobile app that creates awareness and timely interventions in case of snakebites.

Moreover, 80 percent of human deaths in man-animal conflicts in the state used to be due to snake bites. The Sarpa app could also bring down those numbers.

Even as Kerala has around 130 types of snakes, the most widely spotted ones are cobra, python and rat snakes. The state now has over 3000 snake rescuers trained by the forest department, of that around 935 are now actively involved in snake rescue operations.