Snake bite deaths spike during monsoon floods

Hindu gods are often depicted with cobras: Shiva is seen wearing a girdle of serpents and cobras for earrings; Vishu is pictured resting on the coils of a multi-headed cobra.

In India and Nepal, where authorities say a handful of the 92 people killed by this year's monsoon died from snake bites, there is even a special holiday to worship the serpents.

Some Buddhist legends have also incorporated snakes, such as the tale of the giant cobra that used its hood to shield Buddha from the sun as he mediated in the desert.

There are no hard figures for the exact density of snakes on the subcontinent, but anecdotal evidence suggest it's high. Whitaker said the tribal hunters he works with can pull two or three cobras from a 5-acre rice paddy in a day. "That's a lot of snakes from a small patch."

Rats, frogs attract snakes
The reason there are so many is the small farms that still cover much of rural India provide the perfect habitat for snakes' prey, such as rats or frogs.

"Plenty of water in irrigated rice fields; there are places in the country where rats are worshipped so they don't kill them."

The good news is that it usually takes hours or sometimes days for a snake bite to kill, and that only 10-20 percent of such attacks are fatal, depending on who you ask.

Of course, that's little comfort to the many people who have to walk for days to get to hospitals — or those who decide to go to a traditional healer before getting the anti-venom.

Rahmat Mia, 45, a farmer, in northern Bangladesh was bitten a few nights ago while returning from a market.

His family first took him to a healer, and stayed for hours trying out various herbal remedies.

By the time Babul Hossain, the local doctor, convinced them to go to the hospital, it was too late — Mia died on the way.

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