BENEFIT WITHHELD

Two decades ago India adopted a law that mandates sharing of benefits from commercial utilisation of biodiversity with local communities. What has kept the law from protecting the interest of people and the biodiversity? VIBHA VARSHNEY travels to bio-rich parts of India to find out

- VIBHA VARSHNEY

One needs a purpose bigger than the egotistical self to choose a vocation that can get the person killed in minutes, and Kali Chokalingam knows what it is for him. At the Irula Snake Catchers Industrial Cooperative Society, housed within the Madras Crocodile Bank in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu, visitors appear entranced by Kali as he, standing in a pit, calmly picks up a Russell’s viper. Hissing around him are other venomous snakes—cobra, common krait and saw-scaled viper—lying in terracotta pots that are sealed with cotton cloth to ensure that the reptiles receive enough air but do not escape. Holding the viper from its jawbone, while controlling its writhing body, Kali squeezes the skull until its fangs clamp over a collection vial and drops of venom flow into it.

The venom of these snakes, referred to as the “big four” as these species cause the maximum number of snake bites in the country, is used for several pharmaceutical products, including antidotes. In India, snake bites cause 58,000 deaths. Venom extraction is a highly dangerous job. But Kali, who belongs to the Irula tribal community, makes the process appear effortless.