Hyderabad: M.G. Venkateshwarlu, an electrician, was bitten by a snake on the Osmania University campus on Friday, Highlighting the severe safety deficiencies and a spate of recent sightings of cobras in the basement of the famed Arts College building.
Venkateshwarlu encountered the snake inside his accommodation within the university's building division. His family and colleagues rushed him to the OU health centre. It turned out the snake was of a non-venomous kind.
The centre, which did not have a stock of anti-venom, directed Venkateswarulu’s family to the Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM) at Narayanguda, which reportedly did not have it either, and sent them to Gandhi Hospital.
After reaching Gandhi Hospital two hours later, he was administered first aid and treated for the wound. He is out of danger.
The snake that bit Venkateswarulu was killed by those who rushed to his aid. The snake was later identified as a checkered keelback found in and around water bodies, sewers, and drains, said Avinash Viswanathan from Friends of the Snakes Society.
Meanwhile, despite one death reported from a cobra bite in 2022 when a cook working at a hostel died, and a student being bitten by a cobra and admitted to Gandhi Hospital, the OU health centre, university officials said, does not stock anti-venom as the unit is meant for outpatient care. “Anti-venom administration requires intensive monitoring, something the health centre is not equipped to deal with,” the official said.
Even as Friday’s incident raised more concerns, sources in the university said Acting Vice Chancellor M. Dana Kishore, who visited the Arts College, the hub of cobra sightings, especially in its basement housing the journalism and psychology departments, was not briefed about the snake menace.
“No steps were announced to prevent snakes from entering the basement despite several instances of cobras being discovered in the corridors, classrooms, and even in toilets in the building,” an OU official said.
