By Melvin Durai
Some of the hardest-working people in the world are farm workers. I appreciate them not just because they produce food for us, but also because they endure conditions that I would not be able to handle. Not only do many of them toil from dawn to dusk in the hot sun, they expose themselves to a slithery creature that scares me to death: the snake. The only time I like to see a snake is when there’s a thick pane of glass between me and the reptile. Thankfully, I never encounter snakes in my daily life. That’s because I work in a job that doesn’t involve any interactions with snakes. I do not have to walk through any jungles, forests or law offices. Many farm workers, on the other hand, can’t avoid putting themselves in harm’s way.
Researchers in India analysed almost 215,000 snakebite incidents worldwide, as documented in 142 studies from 1987 to 2025, and found that 59.1% of the incidents happened during farm-related activities. This is terrible. Imagine if you found out that 59.1% of snakebites happened during cricket-related activities? Would you still play cricket? Yes, you would, but only because you’d have a bat to hit a snake with. The poor farm workers do not have bats or any other weapon to defend themselves.
According to the World Health Organisation, as many as 5.4 million people get bitten by snakes annually. That’s like the entire population of Ireland being bitten. Do you know what would happen if every person in Ireland was bitten? Beer companies would go out of business.
The worst thing about snakebites, of course, is that they can be extremely lethal. The WHO estimates that as many as 138,000 die worldwide from snakebites. Nearly half of these fatalities occur in India. Snakes are responsible for more human deaths than any other animal that doesn’t own a gun. (Actually, mosquitoes are No. 1, followed by humans, then snakes.)
The snakebite research, conducted by Chandrashekhar Janakiram of Amrita University and his colleagues, was published in the journal “PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.” The researchers found that while farm-related activities accounted for the vast majority of snakebites, 9.1% occurred during non-farm outdoor work and 8.4% during walks through fields or forests. In 3.6% of cases, the victim was a snake handler. I’d like to know how many of the snake handlers are now former snake handlers. Once bitten, twice shy. (You’d have to pay me a lot of money to handle a snake. And all that money would go toward life insurance.)
The researchers found that snakebites are more likely to occur during monsoon and post-monsoon periods. Not only does the rain displace snakes into places where people live and work, it’s also prime season for farming. Unfortunately, many farm workers can’t afford proper footwear, making them even more susceptible to snakebites. They also live in homes that are poorly constructed, providing gaps that snakes can easily sneak through. These intruders often find their victims sleeping on the floor, with not a single cricket bat nearby.
Among the snakebites that the researchers analysed, the type of snake was identified in 117,000 cases. The viper species was responsible for 85% of those bites. In India, the champion biter was Russell’s viper (51.3% of identified bites). In second place was the common krait (22.3%) and taking third place was the saw-scaled viper (10%). Barely missing the podium was the spectacled cobra (8.9%). These four snakes are known as India’s “Big Four,” accounting for 92.5% of snakebites. If you happen to be in a field and spot these four snakes coming toward you, you had better do your best imitation of Usain Bolt.