On a cloudy monsoon day recently, a 17-member team of priests performed a four-hour ‘Sarpa Shanthi Yaagam’ (a ritual to propitiate snakes) at Lord Subrahmanya temple at Mopidevie on the Krishna river bank. They sought the mercy of the snakes surviving on the tiny island of Diviseema in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh.
Unable to check the rising number of snakebite cases, the Andhra Pradesh government had to accede to the local communities’ plea for the ritual. After all, the snakes had no choice but to enter agriculture fields and human habitations, after the virtual collapse of their prey base on the island: mainly frogs.
The food chain was hit as local communities hunted down frogs and shipped them illegally to China, depriving the snakes. The reptiles, now desperate, entered human habitations. As instances of snakebite increased, the local communities began chasing and killing them. The illegal frog trade also put the amphibians on the verge of extinction in the Island.
Diviseema gained national attention in 1977 when it was hit by a devastating cyclone, leaving over 10,000 people dead. Four decades later, it is in the news because of the conflict between man and snakes.
The island, nestled in the mighty Krishna river and the Bay of Bengal, with the Krishna Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS), is a rare ecological region with dense mangrove cover. Spread over 708.80 sq km, the island comprises three mandals: Koduru, Avanigadda and Nagayalanka, with a population of above 1.34 lakh (2011 Census). The KWS accounts for 194.8 sq km of the island.
The decline of frogs began when local traders started offering attractive prices to collectors, whose job was to trap frogs from the marshes, farms and other sources and remove two legs and the head, before packing them in ice boxes. “Local traders sent the frog legs to Kolkata and onward to prime destinations in China,” a former trader told The Hindu .
“For nearly a decade, the illegal frog trade thrived on the island. It came to an end by early 2010 as the frogs dwindled,” said Allaparthi Appa Rao, an independent wetland expert working on conservation of mangroves in Krishna and KWS. In India, a ban on frog exports came into force in 1987.
“The illegally traded species from the island include Bull frog, Indian Skipper frog, Yellow Indian frog and Southern Cricket frog/Indian Cricket frog”, Mr. Appa Rao explained.
Hiss and bite
Snake bite cases rise during the monsoon, with flood waters from the Krishna entering human habitations and inundating paddy fields. Snakes from the mangroves, marshy wetland and river beds enter human habitations.
The KWS, with dense mangroves, has many snakes: Striped keelback, Common Kukri, Checkered keelback, Common Trinket, Rat snake, Common Indian Bronzeback and Common Green whip among others, according to a study by the Environment Protection Training and Research Institute (Hyderabad).
Until August, as many as 320 snakebite cases were reported, mostly in the monsoon, and three people died in August. “Forty-five cases out of 75 in August were not poisonous,” said Krishna District Hospital Services co-ordinator, Dr. Jyothirmayi.
“Availability of anti-snake venom in government hospitals has helped avert deaths,” said Deputy Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly Mandali Buddha Prasad, who represents Avanigadda constituency that includes Diviseema.
