Russell's Viper Study in India: Herpetologist Gerry Martin's Research on Deadly Snakebites

Russell’s Viper Radio Telemetry

“We club it to death, and then burn it! We burn it because its mullu (fang) contains venom even after its death,” says a superstitious 74-year-old chilli farmer from Chowdikatte village in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. “My neighbour was bitten by a mandala haavu (Russell’s viper) once. His wound turned gangrenous and the limb had to be amputated,” he adds solemnly.

Considered one of the big four snakes in India for causing the most number of medically significant human snakebite incidents (the Indian cobra, common krait, and the Indian saw-scaled viper form the quartet), Russell’s vipers, Daboia russelii, are a much-feared snake species across its habitat range spread over most of the Indian subcontinent.

Unlike cobras or kraits, Russell’s vipers are ambush predators that usually hide and camouflage themselves rather than slither away from conflict situations. They are particularly feared for necrosis and tissue damage that their venom can inflict on survivors leading to amputations, limb and arm deformities, as well as long-term health debilitations.

Twenty-one summers ago, while harvesting a fresh batch of corn under the unseasonal iridescence of a rainbow sky, a young Devendra Rao Kadam prised an obstinate Russell’s viper that had latched onto his ankle. Now an older Kadam, 54, with a receding hairline and a Syme amputation still sports wound marks that refuse to heal fully. His voice bears the weight of hopelessness when he says, “I wish I had died when the snake bit me two decades ago. It’s a cursed existence to suffer a life of burning pain and limited mobility.”

The enormous economic strain a survivor is forced to bear to treat the damaging long-term effects of venom makes the snakebite despairing. Dorai, 49, a survivor, spent about USD 2,750 to get his limb and life partially back on track. Some are not that lucky and their sense of loss is profound. Corn farmer Ganesh V.S. spent a little less than USD 20,000 to treat his wife Sujatha who died of renal failure 15 months after the snakebite. Ganesh is now considering mortgaging his productive farmland to repay debts he accrued to treat his wife.

According to data released by the World Health Organisation (WHO), an estimated 81,000–138,000 people succumb to snakebites each year. India is among the countries most dramatically affected by snakebites and accounts for almost half the total number of deaths in the world making snakes a conflict species in the country. Another study states that India accounted for 1.2 million snakebite deaths (an average of 58,000 per year) from 2000 to 2019. Russell’s viper bites constituted 43 per cent of these deaths.

The Liana Trust led by herpetologist Gerry Martin studies the species through radio telemetry, the newest technology that uses radio signals to determine the location of the snake and understand it better. Inserted in the coelomic cavity at around 75 per cent down the length of the snake, these transmitters enable conducting a statistically and scientifically sound project by gathering data about the snake and its impact on the ecosystem, along with studying the natural history, behaviour, and ecology, among other things. The radio-telemetry study is one of the key interventions by The Liana Trust in reducing human-snake conflict since understanding the snake and its behaviour is the first step towards reducing negative human-snake interactions.

In the bamboo-lined pathways of The Liana Trust, every Russell’s viper studied there creates a sense of optimism; while every snake clubbed to death in the village creates a deep sense of imminent loss. Pray it's not long before the 74-year-old chilli farmer and his community share this optimism.

A Russell’s viper (Doboia russelii)

Farmers thresh legumes in a field. Most bites occur in fields when people accidentally step on snakes.

A farmer works in a banana field.

A Russell’s viper lies under vegetation in a banana field.

Naturalists Kiran Bagade and Chethan K.V. look for a Russell’s viper.

A captured Russell’s viper lies in a tub.

The Russell’s viper is monitored before the procedure to insert a radio telemetry transmitter.

The sedated Russell’s viper lies on the operating table.

A radio telemetry transmitter sits in a sterilised tub on the operating table.

A veterinarian performs a surgery on the Russell’s viper to insert a radio telemetry transmitter.

A radio telemetry transmitter is inserted into the Russell’s viper.

The Russell’s viper lies on a table after the surgery.

Vivek Philip Cyriac, a herpetologist resuscitates the Russell’s viper after the surgery.

A Russell’s viper basks in garden foliage.

Devendra Rao Kadam, 54, a survivor of a Russell’s viper bite poses for a photo.

Nelapattira Rani Uttaiah, 68, had to undergo amputation of her left leg after a Russell’s viper bite.

Ganesh V.S., 51, poses with a photo of his wife Sujatha, 40, who passed away after being bitten by a Russell’s viper.

A farmer dons a pair of Wellington boots before stepping into his corn field.

Naturalist Kiran Bagade tracks a radio tagged Russell’s viper in a marshy creek.

A farmer walks in a fallow field.

These images were shot on assignment for Mongabay from 2020 to 2021.

Text excerpts from the Mongabay story ‘Radio Telemetry Signals New Ways to Study Snakes’.