Snakebite is not just a health issue. Karnataka shows why

Snakebites claim over 58,000 lives in India each year, with many more survivors facing lifelong disabilities such as amputations and organ damage. The victims are overwhelmingly rural: farmers walking barefoot at dawn, plantation workers harvesting crops, day-wage labourers sleeping on floors, and children playing around their homes.

Fear-driven retaliation leads to the routine killing of snakes, often even when they pose no immediate threat. Ironically, this can be counterproductive: many snakes killed are harmless, and their removal can create ecological vacancies that may later be occupied by venomous species.

Coexistence with snakes is often discussed as an ethical or ecological goal, but it is only possible when communities feel medically secure. A farmer is far more likely to tolerate a cobra in a field if they know treatment is accessible, affordable, and effective. Snakebite disproportionately affects working-age adults, and when a breadwinner dies or loses mobility, entire households can fall into poverty. Strengthening health systems is therefore
the foundation of any meaningful coexistence strategy.

While the volume of conflict with elephants or tigers pales in comparison to that of conflict with snakes, the matter receives only a fraction of attention. The tide began to turn when, in 2019, the World Health Organisation re-recognised snakebite as a neglected tropical disease (NTD), spotlighting its toll on the poor. India’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) responded by launching the National Action Plan for Snakebite Envenoming (NAPSE) in March 2024 as a blueprint for states and central agencies, with guidance that emphasises surveillance, prevention, and management and shares the WHO’s goal to halve deaths by 2030.

Karnataka has moved quickly to translate this momentum into policy. In February 2024, the state declared snakebite a notifiable disease under the Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act, requiring real-time reporting through the Integrated Health Information Portal (IHIP).

Surveillance is the backbone of effective policy. Reliable data allows authorities to identify high-risk districts, strategic positioning of antivenom stocks, and target awareness campaigns. Karnataka’s policy triggered a surge in reporting – from 3,439 cases in 2022 and 6,596 in 2023 to 13,235 in 2024 and 16,805 in 2025. The rise reflects improved reporting rather than an increase in snakebites. In January, free treatment in government and empanelled private hospitals was mandated, eliminating upfront costs via state health insurance integration.

Building on these reforms, Karnataka launched its State Action Plan for Snakebite Envenoming (SAPSE) in February 2026. The plan shifts the response from purely medical treatment to coordinated, multi-sector governance. 

While snakebite is a public health concern on the outside, it is a multifaceted crisis that transcends hospital wards, and this plan exemplifies coordinated, multidisciplinary action. For instance, prevention of snakebites requires the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj departments to work with communities on sanitation and waste management to control rodent populations. Moreover, it needs the Department of Agriculture to work with farmers and its own officers on ensuring farmer safety through education, and it needs the forest department to ensure there are robust conflict resolution mechanisms in place for those who need it. 

SAPSE is a way of organising data into three pillars with rules that must be followed. First, surveillance mandates district-level dashboards and annual audits, rooting policies in real-time evidence over anecdote. Second, prevention directs agriculture and rural development departments to integrate snake-safe protocols into their outreach, curbing encounters through community training, and lastly, management ensures anti-venom availability, upskilling ASHA workers, and referral pathways directly increase survival rates.

SAPSE also highlights research gaps such as regional antivenom trials. While current treatment protocols focus on the “Big Four” species – the spectacled cobra, Russell’s viper, saw-scaled viper, and common krait – the plan also recognises other medically significant species in Karnataka.

The action plan boldly confronts legislative gaps, advocating uniform compensation for snakebite victims akin to other occupational hazards, ensuring families receive timely financial relief without bureaucratic hurdles. It pushes to restrict harmful therapies while streamlining legal frameworks for ethical venom collection to bolster regional antivenoms. These reforms, from victim support under labour laws to antivenom quality regulations, demand Centre-state alignment transforming SAPSE from a state action plan to a national example and shielding Karnataka’s rural workforce from economic ruin.

SAPSE’s inter-departmental approach fosters accountability with defined timelines, transcending individual leadership to ensure continuity across changing administrations. Crucially, it institutionalises evidence-based messaging, countering misinformation and harmful first-aid myths with uniform awareness. Heralding snakebite as a multifaceted issue demanding stakeholders’ constructive collaboration marks a landmark transition from crisis management to a coordinated, multidisciplinary mission to save lives and livelihoods. 

Karnataka has shifted the narrative. Snakebites are not an inevitable part of rural life but rather a solvable public health problem, with positive outcomes for communities and snakes alike. If India is to meet the WHO goal of halving global snakebite deaths by 2030, other states must follow suit. 

Sumanth is director of the Wildlife Department, and Shubhra is a senior specialist of wildlife research at Humane World for Animals India

(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.)