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 The
Irula Co-operative society is a self-help project recognised
by the State government of Tamil Nadu. The project taps the
skills of the Irula tribe in venom production, rodent control
and termite control. The Irulas are expert snake catchers
and this skill was earlier being exploited by smuggling cartels
to procure snakeskins for the international market. But following
the ban of this trade for ecological reasons, the Irulas were
deprived their means of living. The Irula Snake Catcher’s
Society now buys venomous snakes from the Irula members,
extracts the venom and then the snakes are released back to
the wild. The venom is then sold to laboratories.
 The
antidote is prepared by injecting a small and non lethal dose
of venom ‘milked’ from the fangs of a live King
Cobra, into a healthy horse. Once the horse’s body
has developed antibodies to the venom, blood is removed from
the jugular vein of the horse. The blood is then mixed with
an anticoagulant and a preservative, and the antibodies are
separated and stored as antivenin.
The snakes from which venom is extracted are known as the
‘Big Four’. They are the most dangerous snakes
in India - the Cobra, Krait, Russells Viper and Saw
scaled Viper. The venom is extracted at the Snake
Venom Extraction Centre located in the precincts of the
Madras Crocodile Bank (MCB) on East Coast Road.
Uses of Snake Venom
 Snake
venom is used to make anti-venom serum – the only real
cure for snakebites. Another use of snake venom is in medicine,
as it contains many useful enzymes, proteins and toxins.
Russells Viper Venom is a coagulant and is used to control
bleeding, while Cobra venom is used to control Cancer and
also relieve pain.
Captive breeding of King Cobra at Madras Crocodile Bank
The Madras Crocodile Bank or Centre for Herpetology successfully
bred King Cobras in 1996. 29 hatchlings resulted from the
eggs of three females. Although King Cobras are primarily
snake-eaters in nature, the hatchlings and the adults that
produced them have become accustomed to feeding on rats.
The largest of the hatchlings is now 2.45 meters and the others
average 1.2 – 1.4 meters.
Click here to know more about Snake
Park in Guindy, Madras
Crocodile Bank or its Director - Romulus
Whitaker
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KING COBRA |
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The King Cobra (Ophiophagus Hannah) or
‘Nalla Pambu’ as it is
known in Tamil, is considered the most dangerous
of all snakes. It lives near streams, in dense
or open forests, bamboo thickets, or adjacent
agricultural areas and dense mangrove swamps.
It is found in South West and North East India,
East to South East China including Hong Kong,
throughout the Malay Peninsula and East to Western
Indonesia and the Phillipines. A number of geographically
distinct variations with a number of colour /
pattern variations are known due to the King’s
broad geographic range. The King's head is as
big as a man’s hand and the amount of venom
from one bite of the King is enough to kill an
elephant or 20 people.
King Cobras are the only snakes known to construct
a nest for their eggs. The female scoops rotted
leaves and similar vegetation into a pile and
the material is gathered together using the loops
of the body. The nest is generally composed of
two compartments in which the lower one holds
20 to 40 eggs and the guarding female occupies
the upper compartment. The female remains with
the nest throughout the 60 to 85 day incubation
period and will remain until the hatching occurs.
The female Cobra leaves the nest after hatching
and the hatchlings are left to fend for themselves.
The male plays no part in taking care of the nest
or after the eggs hatch.
Recommended reading: Romulus Whitaker’s
- Common Indian Snakes, Macmillan,
1978.
For more information on King Cobra visit:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/97/kingcobra/index-n.html
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