With the number of human deaths due to snakebite rising in the State, as many as 25 new snake rescuers were inducted in the Snake Helpline as trainee volunteers on Sunday to serve people across the State.

The snake rescuers will rescue snakes from houses in their locality. A workshop on “Occupational Safety” was also conducted for the snake rescuers in the induction programme. Apart from that, an interactive session with 40 old snake rescuers was also conducted to share their rescue experience with the new rescuers.

The snake rescuers were trained by noted wildlife expert former DCF Kamal Lochan Purohit about the ethics of wildlife rescue and wildlife act. Purohit gave valuable tips to the rescuers on how to work in association with local forest officials.

AIIMS, Bhubaneswar Associate Prof Dr Sudipta Ranjan Singh taught the rescuers on the much-needed appropriate first-aid management after snakebite. Dr Singh also gave occupational safety tips to avoid snakebite and informed about the possible zoonotic disease infections the snake rescuers may get from snakes.

Snake Helpline general secretary and Honorary Wildlife Warden of Khordha Subhendu Mallik said, “The new snake rescuers are inducted as trainee volunteers irrespective of their age for the next two years. We will train them to enhance their skill on snake handling, make aware about wildlife act. They will assist local forest staffs at the time of their need. There is also a mandatory annual refresher training course for all the snake rescuers of Snake Helpline.”

A total of 60 snake rescuers from across the State attended the one-day workshop organised by the Snake Helpline here.

“I have personally trained more than 900 forest personnel during the last 10 years. However, they are yet to undertake the highly dangerous and life threatening job of snake-rescue. Therefore, we have to build up our own resources to safeguard the society from the fear of snake and to fight the increasing snake-bite menace in the State” added Mallik.