Union government has indicated that snake bite deaths have been on the increase in the entire India with 431 deaths reported last year as compared to 370 in 2024 and 183 in 2023. The environment ministry issued the data in a written response in the Lok Sabha and indicated an alarming positive trend in human-snake conflicts in India.
Government documents indicate that Karnataka has the highest death rates due to snakebites with 157 and 101 deaths in 2025 and 2024 respectively. Minister of state Environment Kirti Vardhan Singh told Parliament that snakebite has been recommended to be listed as a notifiable disease under corresponding state and Union territory laws on public health.
To date, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Kerala, Maharashtra and Odisha are only some of the states which have declared snakebite cases and deaths notifiable. This would be undertaken to enhance tracking, reporting and response processes using systems such as the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme and the Integrated Health Information Portal.
The matter was brought to light by Congress MP Prabha Mallikarjun, who demanded an explanation as to why there have been increased occurrence of snakebites especially in the forest-fringe regions and rural regions as well. She also doubted whether there was the loss of habitat, variable climate and ecological disbalance that was playing a role in the higher human snake conflicts.
Reflectively, the government replied that the wars on wildlife and its management are mostly the prerogative of state governments and UT administrations. It further stated that directives have been given on the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 to provide proper management of the areas of protection as well as strike a balance between conservation and outlay of the population on the issue of protection.