CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, March 22: The Jharkhand Forest Department has planned to spread awareness among people with regard to the importance of snakes and its role to the ecosystem. The incident of snake-human conflict is often a common phenomenon in Jharkhand during summers and monsoons and majority of times the cold blooded reptile is killed for no reason.
The Divisional Forest Officer of Jharkhand Forest Department, Srikant said that the necessary data which are required to spread the awareness among people are already present with the department.
“The identification of venomous and non-venomous snakes is very important and that is only possible if people get proper education about it. The department has enough data and material which can be used to educate people to not kill snakes but the reach has been an issue,” he said.
Earlier, the department had published a few articles in certain newspapers regarding snakes but it has failed to reach the majority of the population.
“The newspaper reading population is quite less and it will not help our cause. So we are planning to distribute pamphlets to common people and educate them about the importance of snakes. Apart from it, we are also planning to get along with some independent snake rescuers who have many subscribers on youtube. In this way we can help in spreading awareness,” he added.
Every year, thousands of people die due to snake bites in Jharkhand and the majority of such incidents take place in villages where people lack education. Many times, people tend to catch snakes with bare hands which leads to such horrific incidents.
The Forest department, with the help of Van Prani Prabandhan Yojana, provides snake catching equipment to various official snake rescuers across various villages in Jharkhand.
