 learners now we will discuss about one of the most crucial issues with reptiles and reptiles and particularly we will deal with venomous snakes and we will also see the venomous snakes of diversity of north-east India and what we need to do the first day treatment in case of snake bite. So as you know in India we have two very big group of venomous snakes and these two big group of venomous snakes falls into two families and these two families are known as illapids the family of cobra, coral snakes and the crates and also there is another group of venomous snake which are called viparadi belongs to family viparadi and this is the family of vipers and pit vipers. So here in north-east India also we have these two group of venomous snakes two families of venomous snakes the illapids and vipers. So the most famous illapid of India is the cobra. So we have two species of cobra like the binoculate cobra and monoculate cobra. How we can identify is that in binoculate cobra the back side of their hood is having a double O marking pattern and in monoculate cobra there is only one monocled eye marking pattern. So this is the difference and this both these species are the most famous illapid and then we have the largest venomous snake in the world. This is called king cobra and the king cobra is the longest venomous snake and grow up to 18 feet. So this king cobra also occurs in our north-east India and also southern India and in other ores south so west Bengal but this species is found to be a very pit species complex so king cobra is also an illapid. And then among the viparadi we have the most common vipers in north-east India the pit vipers. So the pit vipers are generally very green in color and their body is very short and one of the main characteristics is that pit vipers has a quite triangular head shape and their top of the head scales are very small. So these are the characteristics of pit vipers and if you see the eye is a slit is vertical so it is also a nocturnal snake comes out in the night time. And then another illapid is the most common snake called bended crate. So it is a very distinct snake we cannot misidentify it is having the whole body is yellow and black pattern. So this is the bended crate and sometime people misidentify it is having a people say that it is having a double head another head so it is which is false because their tail is very blunt which is misidentified as a head. So this is the bended crate it is another nocturnal snake. So crate and then this is the black crate so all the crates are nocturnal snake they comes out only in the night time and they are shiny black in color and their eyes are very small black small so this characterizes the crate. So these are the venomous snake which is commonly found in in northeast India. So as we saw that there is a pit viper which is a most common in the hill areas of northeast India so why they are called pit vipers. So pit vipers are the one of the most highly evolved group of reptiles. So they have a pit organ here there is a pit here so with that pit they can sense the one blooded prey so this helps in getting their food more efficiently. So this is one of the ground dwelling pit viper and this is the green pit viper which is very common and there are 7 to 8 species of green pit viper in northeast India and you can see the pit here so with that pit they sense the one blooded prey around them. So that is why they are pit. So what are the venomous species here and how to identify them this is one of the most crucial question. So as you know in India there are sea snakes also which comes under venomous group but we in northeast India we do not have any sea snake and in northeast India there are so far 102 species of snakes are so far recorded and out of that 102 species only 17 species are dangerously venomous. So and again out of their 17 species there are only 3-4 species which live in and around human habitation and those 3 and 4 species can actually are real threat for humans if they are confronted sometime. So if we can recognize those only 3 and 4 species we can really minimize the threat of snake bite and snake bite death. So there are some very simple keys by which we can utilize and we can take precautionary measures by using this. So there are some snakes like those snakes which can raise a hood. Hood means like they can spread up the head portion of the body and can stand up. So this is called hood and those snakes which can raise a hood and there is a mark on the back. The back side of the hood is a big earth venomous snake and you can see this is the marking pattern on the back side of their hood. So these are the cobra. So we need to be careful from cobra which live in and around human habitation. So then another group of snake like if we find a snake in the night time and the snake is very shiny black in coloration then we should be careful about that snake because that snake can be a great. If we find a snake in the daytime and which is black and which is moving around in the daytime then we should not be it may not be a great because it may be black colored rat snake. So and then if we find a snake in the night time which has a big yellow and black bands on the body like this then we can be we can take precaution because that can be a great. The banded gray the banded gray although it is a venomous snake but it is very rarely bites but then another snake is that if we find a snake with body is very short and very stout and there is a triangular head shape shape of the head is triangular and its coloration in green in color and it is moving around in the night time then we should be careful about that snake because that snake can be a big viper. So these are very simple things we can identify. And then in northeast India we have so many non-venomous snakes. So this non-venomous snakes have so many characteristics. One simple thing is that there is in northeast India there is no other no snake which is having a long stripes on the body like this striped long stripe on the body. So this all long striped body snake and non-venomous in northeast India so far. So then we have a large this is a black snake and this is also a black snake which we mistake it as a cobra. So these are two very beneficial snakes these are rat snakes but we mistake it for cobra because cobra is also black and we mistake it for crate also but if we just look it carefully we see that they are either really very big and unlike cobra they cannot stand up and raise the hood. So we can say that these are the rat snake and all the striped snake as I said they are non-venomous here and very long and slender snake very thin and long snake which stay on the leaf and on the trees they are non-venomous. And then another group of snake we think that this blind snakes all the blind snake which come out from the soil or in our houses all the blind snakes are non-venomous. So just coming to the snake bite and how it happens and what to do this is one of the most serious issue in India and why you know just we need to remember one thing because snake bite snake snake bite always is an accident and it never happens snake never comes and bite us it only happens when there is something carelessness happened. So India is one of those country in the world where most of the snake bite death cases are recorded something around 25,000 people die every year which is a huge loss. So 90% of the snake bite victims are male and 40% snake bite occurs in the feet only that is in on the leg and crate is regarded as the most dangerous species but what happen is this huge statistics is only from few states like Bihar and some central Indian state Orissa, West Bengal where lot of people work in the pedifield area and so this is our in North East India there is no perfect record of the number of death per year which may be also quite high but there is no such statistics from North East India so this is an Indian statistic but one thing is true that most in case of snake bite most of the many of the peoples die not because of snake bite but because of the fry because they after the snake bite the patient becomes so much tense that there are lot of cases of heart attack and the patient dying of heart attack rather than snake bite. So that is one of the also a significant point where lot of peoples die out of fear. You know snake venom is evolutionary gift so evolution has gifted them this remarkable thing and it's a adaptation to getting sophistication in their life. So as we see this snake this evolutionary trend this is the most primitive snake the group of python so in case of python they have a backwardly directed teeth all around the mouth so because they don't have venom so they have to grab the prey and they have to keep it because otherwise they don't have venom if they release it they will go and escape so in that way that's why they have a backwardly directed teeth and in a little bit more advanced there are many teeth on the mouth both floor so that they can grab the prey but as they grow more towards sophistication they didn't require any further teeth so teeth number has gone reduced but there is one teeth came in the front so that is a big one and it's known as fang so that is the venom fang and which in photography looks like this and it's more like a hypodermic needle so hypodermic needle means the inside of this fang is hollow so this is in case of cobra they have a very short fang but in case of viper they have a very long fang so these are the two different things and just to remind is that as I told you that cobra crate and coral snake they belong to the group ilapidae and then there is another group called viperidae so this cobra they have a predominantly neurotoxic venom means they are cobra and crates venom primarily acts on their our nervous system but in case of viper or feed viper their venom primarily affects on our blood vascular system means it destroys the blood coagulation properties so we can vary their very common sense by which we can avoid this snake bite so we should not you know step out in the dark and particularly in the month when snakes are most active during the monsoon season we should use torch and we can use it because torches are now so cheap careful when moving along bushes and rocky areas where snakes like to stay do not turn rocks and locks with your hand keep house rat and toad free we get a lot of snake rescue calls and we go to the house and we find that the house is full of rat and full of toads so if the house is full of rat and toad it's like a restaurant for the snake so snake will definitely come there as we go in any restaurant so feed window with wire mesh if there is a lot of snakes around do not sleep on the ground in orisa be hard and west Bengal there are a lot of people who die because they sleep on the ground and in the night time because crate comes in the night time and night they enter in the house and they buy they can bite the person sleeping and there are a lot of snake bite happen because people try to catch them because people think that catching snake is a act of bravery so they catch them and they don't know where which one is venomous which one is not and in that process they get bitten so this is one of the main cause of snake bite so snake bite happens and it's also one of the human health hazard so in case of snake bite we can also adopt some very small precautionary measure or the first aid treatment if there is any snake bite do not panic which is the most important and do not run so report it immediately when whoever is there nearby you you tell him that I have been bitten by a snake then if you are you snake has been bitten somebody do just don't let him walk and just carry him and do not allow to walk on run because if you walk if you let the patient walk and then the blood circulation will increase and the venom will extend very fast so do not waste time in traditional treatment what happened is till now in our society if there is any snake bite we directly go to the wajah or tantric so what happened is since there are most of the snake bites are from nonvenomous snake so wajah and tantric can recognize that this is a nonvenomous bite and they treat it and the patient becomes all right but in case if it is really bitten by a venomous snake then tantric and wajah cannot do anything because then doctor must have to be at me so that's why do not waste time just go to hospital and keep body warm but don't give alcohol in in hill areas I have seen when snake snake bite occurred people drink alcohol so if you drink alcohol then what happened is your circulation and then all this impulse and everything will increase and in that process venom will spread rapidly and do not squeeze suck the injury in lot of Hindi films we saw that when there is a snake bite we cut it and squeeze it or somebody squeeze sucking the wound and taking out the blood which is not possible in case of venomous snake you cannot suck the blood and take it out so do not do it and if you cut it then there may be other symptom which is very dangerous in case of viper bite if you cut it then there will be continuous bleeding so you should not do this type of thing avoid tony quit what happened is in most of the snake bite people used to tie very tightly there is tony quit bend they used to in their idea is to stop the blood so that the venom cannot go which is which is wrong actually if you do this and if they you don't know whether it is a venomous snake or not and if you tie it very tightly and hospital is farward the patient has been kept by tying the tony quit for a long time then blood circulation completely stopped and in that process the blood vessels on the other side may rupture so in the so that's why tony quit should be avoided or give lot of assurance just tell the patient that nothing happened we will go with mental suffering mental strength in the most important thing in case of snake bite so coming to this tony quit thing as I told you if you just tie the tony quit very tightly for a long time then there may be rotting because rupture of blood vessels will start the process of rotting of the limbs and hands wherever so the patient will have to lose lost its limb in this way so how snake bite as just you know snake bite how this teeth function in the venom fang function is that the this venom fang is hollow and it's attached to the venom gland so whenever they bite whenever they bite the venom from the venom gland comes and it's enter is because it is hollow it enters to our body so coming to the type of venom as I told there are two main groups of venom that is neurotoxic where the effect will be on the nervous system as you say the patient cannot open its eye cannot talk there will be slurness of the speech so all the nervous symptom will happen then we can identify that he has been bitten by a neurotoxic having neurotoxics name phenoms name and then there is a hemotoxic symptom also where there will be lot of swelling there will be two big fang marks also or maybe one and the blood coagulation will be disrupted so rather we should avoid tony quit but there is a pressure immobilization method which is recommended by world health organization so where there is a snake bite like here the snake fang mark is here snake bitten this part so try take a big width bandage and try start by a bandage from very beginning to as much as you want your idea is not to stop the blood circulation but to slow the circulation to return the circulation so in that way you are and also if you tie the bandage for a long distance then you are actually immobilizing the limb so that the patient cannot mobilize its arm freely or the leg because you are also tying it on the knee or on the arm whole arm so and keep the arm in this way so this is the process by which you can you are not stopping the blood circulation but you are returning the blood circulation and there are in government of India is giving free supply to the polyvalent and a serum which is which is available from government agency and these are the agencies Bengal chemicals Hapkin central research institute serum institute of India and government supply to all the medical colleges where there is available but this polyvalent serum also act you know negatively to different patients so the polyvalent serum serum before administration it should be tested with the by the doctors antivenom and polyvalent there are little bit different because the polyvalent which is available in north India is made up of the venom of four big four of India there is great cobra and then Russell's viper and then that is common crate so skill viper so these are the four species which are the into a polyvalent serum is made so it's mainly produced from the horse blood because slowly administered the venom was slowly administered the horse and then horse blood serum was taken and then it is available in freeze to dry then skin test generally is performed before administration so this is the anti snake venom liethylase is made up of cobra crate Russell's viper and so skill viper so these four snakes venom is combined in one package and it's a freely supplied with this we came to an end to our topic on snake bite and it's many