Extraction of snake venom in Bihar soon, says minister

PATNA: The state will soon have a snake park for extraction of snake venom for use in pharmaceutical industry, particularly in production of anti-venom – the medication needed to treat the victims of snakebite.
The department of environment, forest and climate change (EFCC) is all set to grant permission for venom harvesting with its headquarters in Patna.
EFCC minister Neeraj Kumar Singh on Thursday told this newspaper that the department would soon issue formal permission to a request made from a person heading a team of experts for rearing a variety of poisonous snakes and harvesting their venom using the latest technique for use in producing medicines.
This team is already engaged in the business in some states and has the expertise.
The minister said the site of park and venom extraction unit would be decided soon. The snake park, first of its kind in the state, would be part of ecotourism being promoted by development of natural resources and measures of conservation of biodiversity.
The team would have all support of forest department in identifying the areas thickly inhabited by these deadly poisonous reptiles.
The team handlers would catch these reptiles alive from different areas and keep them in the park under the monitoring of the forest department for extracting the venom as per the government rules.
“Bihar is rich in biodiversity and snakes are found in forests, grasslands, water bodies and old unmaintained buildings,” the minister said.
Though all snakes are not poisonous, the very sight of any of these creeping reptiles invokes a sense of fear. The snake park will have only poisonous species and the team will have to ensure that the extraction of poison does not violate the provisions of Wildlife Act,” said Neeraj.
Beside anti-venom, the extracted venom is also in high demand for research in medical science. The government is working out the terms and conditions for extraction and use of the snake venom.
“Though no survey of these reptiles has been made in recent decades, all parts of the state have snakes. However, the forest areas of North Bihar, especially West champaran, have them in large numbers,” he said.