Vipers terrorise Faridpur char people

At least four bitten and two dead: for the last three months the people of the river sandbanks of Char Bhadrason upazila in Faridpur have lived in a state of fear. They wonder where the mysterious, unfamiliar snakes that have been terrorising their villages will strike next.

The four known snakebite victims in Sadar and Char Jhaukanda unions have experienced the same symptoms: swelling at the site of the bite, bone and muscle pain from head-to-toe, and vomiting. To ask any elder in these communities is to hear them say that never before have they witnessed such kind of symptoms arising from a bite by a venomous snake.

On 12 May 2017, Harun Munshi from Abdul Sikder Dangi village was first to be bitten. He tried local treatment without success before finally being taken to a doctor, where he died. “The site of his bite swelled,” recalls the deceased's son-in-law Md Borhan Mollah. “It became infected and the area started to rot. For about 75 days after being bitten he was with us; then he passed away.”

Rokon Munshi, 50, and Sukha Munshi, 40, from Lotif Mridhar Dangi village in Char Jhaukanda were both bitten on 22 July 2017. Sukha fortunately recovered but Rokon subsequently died at Faridpur Medical College Hospital where he was being treated.

Rokon's wife Hiatunessa saw the snake. “It was like a boa,” she says. “It didn't move like a normal snake.

It was covered in yellow circles and jumped from place to place.”

On 5 August 2017 it appears that the species struck again, when Rohim Mollah, from Badullah Matbbor Dangi village near Gopalpur ferry ghat was bitten. He is still receiving treatment for the bite.

“I have seen two patients bitten by the same type of snake,” says Abul Kalam, upazila health officer in Char Bhadrasan. “One was already dead, the other is alive. Both of them were bitten by vipers.”

On 8 August 2017 villagers killed an unusual snake near the house of Rohim Mollah's neighbour. Since then eleven more snakes of similar appearance have been killed in the area.

Looking at a photograph of the dead snake, Professor Md Kamrul Hasan from the zoology department of Jahangirnagar University says, “It's a Russell's viper, known in Bangla as either the chandro bora or uloo bora snake. These snakes are usually found in the northwest, in the Barind Tract. Perhaps they were carried to Char Bhadrasan by recent floodwaters and have since bred. The bite of the Russell's viper is nasty. The bitten area can become gangrenous.”

The Russell's viper is common through much of South and Southeast Asia, China and Taiwan. It belongs to the genus “daboia”, the name of which stems from the Hindi term for 'which lies hidden' or 'lurks.'

Due to several factors, snakes of this genus account for more snakebites and human deaths than any other; and that's hardly good news for the people of Char Bhadrason.