One evening I received a call from the King Cobra rescuer, Mahendra Katila, from Pokhara, Nepal. He shared a bit of his vision to assemble snake lovers from different corners of the country and organize the first snakes’ conservation seminar. With a degree in Law, Katila dai spends the majority of time talking about snakes, rescuing awe-inspiring king cobras, and making people aware of its importance. Much to my surprise, he tirelessly worked over the proposal, caught into hassle, but ultimately managed to fund the program “Snakes of Nepal: Issue of Conservation and Future Perspectives.”
It was a special moment to see the most uncommon people from different parts of Nepal under one roof sharing their experience with snakes. One privileged occasion to meet Dr. Chabilal Thapa, Bharatpur Hospital, Chitwan, who worked seriously over snake bite and management issues in Nepal. Dr. Khem B Karki, Member Secretary of Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC) urging the Government of Nepal to produce our own stock of Snake Anti-venom across the country. The Polyvalent Anti-venom vials we had in Nepal are imported from India and with rising pressure from Animal Rights in India to curb commercial production of anti-venom beyond India’s need, the High Court passed a bill for no exportation of anti-venom vials elsewhere. Dr. Karki (NHRC), thus, stressed upon initiating the production of snake anti-venom in Nepal before we face dire consequences from the short supply in the future. This was one of the main agendas of the seminar, along with conservation issues.
 |
| Dr. Chhabilal Thapa at the center |
More than happy to meet the daring snake-man of Nepal, Prem Bista from Biratnagar who’s a retired Police officer but has rescued more than 300 deadly kraits and cobras from human settlements. He’s got a real knack for venomous snake handling and long experience in this field over 20 years. Last year while on a rescue, he got bitten by a Binocellate Cobra. But he remained very calm, strong internally, and won the struggle throughout the treatment. The bite left a scar over his left arm but Bista dai is hell-bent on rescuing more deadly venomous snakes. Great to see colleagues; Kamal Devkota, Jeevan Thapa, Chiranjeevi Khanal, Rishi Baral, Santosh Bhattarai, and Biraz Chaudhary who’s been passionately studying and rescuing snakes. New faces include Adv. Ram Kumar Acharya, lecturers from PN Campus, Dept. of Zoology, Pokhara, nature guides from Sauraha, students of forestry colleges (IOF), and snake charmers.
 |
| Prem Bista |
Two days' meeting (May 27-28) concluded with a need for setting up an umbrella organization for Snakes Conservation and Anti-Venom production in Nepal. This was a great beginning and might be the first gathering of a bunch of people who are guided by none other than their passion for working with SNAKES in Nepal. See you next time.’
No comments:
Post a Comment