In Monsoons, when people live under lurking fear of snakes, she is eager to go nearer to the deadly reptile in dark hours in scary jungles of Himachal Pradesh, with a purpose.

Dr Anita Malhotra, 52, a molecular ecologist and evolutionary geneticist from Bangor University in North Wales in UK, is here for a daunting task to search the snakes in forests, take their venom and blood samples before quickly releasing them back in the habitat, as a part of bigger research across the country.

“It is a part of parallel studies on geographic variation in venom of snake species and genetic differentiation. This is for in-depth taxonomic studies in holistic manner and will give leads to make snakebite treatment more specific,” Dr Malhotra told The Statesman in an exclusive interview.  She said it was a collaborative programme with European Union (EU) grants.

Malhotra is accompanied by internationally acclaimed snake conservationist from West Bengal, Vishal Santra for work in HP, with permission of forest department.

Dr Malhotra, an overseas citizen of India, had been a student of zoology at University of Oxford in UK and a Ph.D from University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

She has come back to the native country for research on the little explored subject, for a reason.

“We shifted to UK from India when I was 15. In Kolkata, I found my school friends over-scared of snakes. I always wanted to find reasons. I started off by studying development of species, lizards and finally snakes,” Dr Malhotra said, who did pioneer research on Asian Pit Viper (snake species) and even made an inventory of the reptiles in forests in Tamilnadu.

She had been trying to work in India, given a large variation in species of snakes in one single country, since 1997. “It took me so long to work out tie-ups. Getting permission for collection of venom samples is tough,” she said, adding that she hopes to do studies in West Bengal, Andaman & Nikobar islands and Sikkim, if permitted.

The research will directly help in streamlining ASV for snakebite treatment in India, where around 50,000 people die annually due to bites by snakes.  

About 276 snake species are found in India, out of which 30 are venomous and the ‘Big Four’- Russell’s viper, Cobra, Common Krait and Saw scale viper-are most poisonous.

So far, a Cooperative Society in Tamilnadu supplies entire venom for production of Anti-Snake Venom (ASV) for snakebite treatment in the country.

As per experts, this ASV does work against the ‘Big Four’ snake species, there are doubts about its efficacy in bites by other venomous snakes, going by deaths even after administration of ASV.

“Even Cobra has different species, whose bites may cause different symptoms. Lot of work needs to be done on this,” Dr Malhotra said.