Book on snakes released in Himachal Pradesh
Shimla (ANI): Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu on Friday released a book on snakes found in Himachal Pradesh.
The book named ‘Snakes of Himachal Pradesh’ has been compiled and edited by Omesh Kumar Bharti and DD Bisht, principals of the State Health and Family Welfare Institute.
The Chief Minister expressed interest in documentation on venomous and non-venomous snakes in Himachal Pradesh and said that efforts are needed to create awareness among the people in the state on this issue.
The book contains photographs of snakes at various locations in Himachal Pradesh, which have been documented and identified by a team of researchers led by molecular biologist Anita Malhotra of Bangor University in the United Kingdom, of which Bharti was also a part.
The team captured the snakes in the forests of Himachal Pradesh with permission from the wildlife wing of the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department and took their venom and DNA samples before releasing them back into the same habitat.
DNA and venom samples of snakes from Himachal Pradesh are being tested in the laboratory of Tezpur University, Assam, with the help of Archana Deka of the Department of Molecular Biology.
Bharti said the book has been published with funding from the National Health Mission (NHM) in Himachal Pradesh.
Through this book, snakes have been identified in the state to make people aware about the snakes found in Himachal Pradesh.
Bharti told the Chief Minister that the team is also conducting a larger study through a tie-up with advanced laboratories in the country to know whether the anti-snake venom available in the market can neutralize the venom of snakes in Himachal.
A recipient of the Padma Shri award in medicine, Bharti is on the World Health Organization (WHO) panel for snakebite management and is the national principal co-investigator of an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) study on the incidence of snakebite in the country, which includes 13 states across the country including Himachal Pradesh. (ANI)
