Chakdah: Around 50 families at Sutro-Mathpara village in Nadia's Chakdah have stopped cultivation across 16 acres of land over the past two years because of fear of snakes, mostly Russell's vipers ( chandrabora).
The villagers stopped the cultivation after 15 farm labourers were bitten by snakes in the fields in 2016 and five of them died. Since then, the land has remained uncultivated.
The farmers claimed that they had killed over 100 venomous snakes, mostly Russell's viper, in the last one year. They have killed 15 snakes so far this year.
Forest department officers said the area had plenty of monitor lizards but most of them were caught and killed for food by a section of people living nearby. The lizards used to eat up snakes and an ecological balance was maintained.
"But over the past few years, a section of people in a village close by have killed the lizards and hence, the number of snakes has increased," the officer added.
A retired forest officer, Amalendu Roy, said: "It is a fact that monitor lizards are like predators for snakes. The monitor lizards attack snakes and even eat them. It will be a practical idea to release monitor lizards in areas infested with snakes."
The residents said they had sought the help of the local Tatla 1 panchayat authorities, but a solution is yet to be found our. With no farming, the villagers have to look towards alternative ways for living.
Members of a science organisation who work on creating awareness of various matters, including snakebites, visited the village early this month. They took up the matter with the local administration while suggesting some protective measures against snakebite.
"Killing the snakes will not solve the problem. We have requested the local administration to release monitor lizards in the area. At the same time, awareness is needed to protect the monitors. We have requested the local administration to take up the issue with the forest department. They can engage snake catchers," said Bibartan Bhattacharyya, the president of the science organisation, Chakdah Biggyan O Sanskritik Sanstha.
Amit Ghosh, a youth of Sutro-Mathpara, who runs a poultry and escaped snakebite earlier this week, said: "As we can't cultivate our lands, we have to take up other vocation. I have started a poultry."
Gourpada Ghosh, in his late forties, has stopped cultivating his land and now works on other people's land as a sharecropper.
Last year, venomous snakes, mostly Russell's viper and some cobras, started entering their areas. They killed over 100 snakes.
"Now snakes are entering our houses, cow sheds and stacks of crops making life miserable. I narrowly escaped from being bitten by a snake on Tuesday when one of them entered my poultry," said Amit.
Divisional forest officer (Nadia-Murshidabad) Rana Das said: "This is quite an unusual situation. We will first visit the area to assess the situation and decide on taking remedial measures."
