Chennai: App on snake bites and treatment to be launched

Chennai: In order to create awareness about snake bite treatment and management, the Chennai Snake Park, located inside the Guindy National Park, is all set to develop an ‘app’ system, which has elaborate details on snake bites.

Sources said that snake bite cases are often reported particularly in rural areas. Since most people, bitten by such venomous snakes, are getting panic and they often approach ‘native doctors’, who treat them with herbal medicines and such treatment many a time leads to fatalities.

“Taking stock of the situation, we have planned to create app-based system, in which all the photos of venomous snakes will be updated. Further, the app will also have details like first aid after snake bite. Most importantly, the app will have Global Position System (GPS), through which the patients can identify nearby government health institutions like Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and even private hospitals,” said G. Kannan, Education Officer, Chennai Snake Park.

The application would have facilities to upload photos so that people, who notice snakes every nook and corner, can film them and upload in the app, as it will be helpful to survey the snakes every year, he noted.

“The snake park has been associated with a non-government organisation, which will provide funds for such initiative. Further, we will start geo-coding process across the state for providing GPS connection,” said another official. They were preparing detailed blue-print, after which the public would come to know about this application, the staff added.

Herpetologists have welcomed the move. “It is a good initiative, however, the staff should create strong awareness on this before they launched such system. Since snake bites are often reported in the rural areas, I am at a loss to understand the fact that how such system will work,” said Subramanian, a city based herpetologist.

As far as state health officials are concerned, they are sure that all the government health institutions have enough stock for providing anti-venom treatment. They also claimed that unlike in the past, people are well aware that they should approach nearby hospitals after snake bites.