NHRC seeks report on snakebite deaths

Bhubaneswar: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the Centre and Odisha government over rise in snakebite deaths and sought response from them within six weeks.

Acting on a petition filed by civil rights activist Radhakanta Tripathy, the NHRC also issued notices to the district collectors of Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Balangir, Khurda, Boudh and Bhadrak. Tripathy said about 58,000 persons die every year due to snakebite across the country. He said due to negligence of authorities, three students died after a venomous snake bit them while they were sleeping inside a coaching centre at Nischintapur in Keonjhar district on July 22.

He said snakebite deaths alone accounted for more than 40 per cent of the total disaster deaths in Odisha. Snakebite death cases in Odisha has increased from 522 in 2015 to 1,159 in 2021 due to shortage of anti-snake venom injections in the government-run health facilities, including SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. He pointed out that on an average, 58,000 deaths occur every year in the country due to snakebite, of which 70 per cent are in low-altitude areas of Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Gujarat.