BSF gets lesson in snakebites

GUWAHATI: Jawans of the Border Security Force (BSF) posted along the heavily forested India-Bangladesh border in Tripura not only have to fight smugglers and infiltrators, they also have to ward off snakes.
Rising instances of snakebites among BSF personnel compelled the paramilitary force to organize an awareness workshop at its sector headquarters at Panisagar in North Tripura on Monday.Herpetologists trained jawans on dealing with snakebites and taught them how to distinguish venomous reptiles from non-poisonous ones.
With no prior knowledge in herpetology, jawans posted at the Panisagar sector would often find themselves helpless in cases of snakebites. The area is thickly forested and has an abundance of cobras, vipers and kraits.
A Guwahati-based expert, who was part of the workshop, told TOI that several jawans had even died of snakebites in Panisagar earlier and the situation turned worse every monsoon. "They had no idea about snakes. We equipped them with knowledge about how to treat snakebites," said herpetologist Jayaditya Purkasthya.
"BSF said it had no records about the frequency of snakebite cases. The jawans would mostly resort to treatments from quacks which made things worse," he added.