Fewer Than 200 Snakes Dangerous To Man

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30206, 10 August 1963, Page 8

Fewer Than 200 Snakes Dangerous To Man

KARACHI. July 17. According to World Health Organisation figures published recently, nearly 40,000 people die every year in the world of snake-bite. Out of these about 70 per cent deaths occur in Asia •lone, where every type of poisonous snake is found. But strangely though, out of 2500 different varieties of snakes known to exist in the world, fewer than 200 are dangerous to man

An effective antidote to snake-bite has been developed in Pakistan and other countries from the snake poison itself. The process involves “milking” of the poison of cobras, vipers and other venomous snakes at regular intervals in the laboratories here, and after making it inactive, the poison is injected into horses, whose blood is later drawn out to make an anti-venom serum.

Lately, in the Karachi Zoo, a mother python laid a litter of 30 eggs, about the size of • tennis ball, soft like rubber All eggs were laid within an hour. The female python, which was caught from the jungles of East Pakistan, is about 18 feet long and 40 years old. Her partner was

caught by prfessional snake charmers from the desert waste of Sind in West Pakistan. The female python incubated these eggs for 41 days and brought out all the 30 healthy baby pythons. According to the curator of Karachi Zoo, these pythons are absolutely non-poisonous. The new-born baby snakes are 18 inches long each and they are at present fed on cockroaches, lizards and small mice.

The pythons of Indo-Pakis-tan origin are in great demand abroad, particularly in countries like China and South America, where the white and soft meat of the python is eaten as a rare deliicacy. Unfortunately, this variety of pythons, having been killed or exported in large numbers in the past, has become rare and is now being threatened with extinction.

When eggs were laid by the female python in the Karachi Zoo, the curator informed some of the zoos in foreign countries. He has since received orders for the baby pythons in exchange for a variety of animals and reptiles. 'The baby pythons have, thus, proved to be a boon for the Karachi Zoo.