Abstract
BackgroundVenomous snakebite and its effects are a source of fear for people living in southern Nepal. As a result, people have developed a negative attitude towards snakes, which can lead to human-snake conflicts that result in killing of snakes. Attempting to kill snakes increases the risk of snakebite, and actual killing of snakes contributes to loss of biodiversity. Currently, snake populations in southern Nepal are thought to be declining, but more research is needed to evaluate the conservation status of snakes. Therefore, we assessed attitudes, knowledge, and awareness of snakes and snakebite by Chitwan National Park’s (CNP) buffer zone (BZ) inhabitants in an effort to better understand challenges to snake conservation and snakebite management. The results of this study have the potential to promote biodiversity conservation and increase human health in southern Nepal and beyond.MethodsWe carried out face-to-face interviews of 150 randomly selected CNP BZ inhabitants, adopting a cross-sectional mixed research design and structured and semi-structured questionnaires from January–February 2013.ResultsResults indicated that 43 % of respondents disliked snakes, 49 % would exterminate all venomous snakes, and 86 % feared snakes. Farmers were the most negative and teachers were the most ambivalent towards snakes. Respondents were generally unable to identify different snake species, and were almost completely unaware of the need of conserve snakes and how to prevent snakebites. Belief in a snake god, and the ability of snakes to absorb poisonous gases from the atmosphere were among many superstitions that appeared to predispose negativity towards snakes of BZ residents.ConclusionPeople with predisposed negativity towards snakes were not proponents of snake conservation. Fear, negativity, ambivalence towards, and ignorance about, snakes and the need for snake conservation were strong indicators of the propensity to harm or kill snakes. It seems that if wanton killing of snakes continues, local snake populations will decline, and rare and endangered snake species may even become locally extirpated. Moreover, inappropriate perception and knowledge about snakes and snakebites may put BZ people at increased risk of venomous snakebite. Therefore, intensive, pragmatic educational efforts focused on natural history and ecology of snakes and prevention of snakebite should be undertaken in communities and at schools and universities.
Highlights
Venomous snakebite and its effects are a source of fear for people living in southern Nepal
We presented the first type of question as, Which one of the following snakes do you think were venomous or non-venomous? and which snake species do you know by their local/ English/scientific names?
Apparent decline of local snake populations and extirpation of rare or endangered snake species in the lowlands of Nepal may occur if wanton killing of snakes is unchecked, which has multifarious and unforeseen negative impacts on biodiversity and human health
Summary
Venomous snakebite and its effects are a source of fear for people living in southern Nepal. People have developed a negative attitude towards snakes, which can lead to human-snake conflicts that result in killing of snakes. The results of this study have the potential to promote biodiversity conservation and increase human health in southern Nepal and beyond. Human attitudes towards snakes can be both positive and negative [1, 2]. Snakes are typically misunderstood, mistreated, feared or killed, even when humans consider snakes to be symbols of power and worthy of worship worldwide [3, 6,7,8]. The consequences of negativity, ambivalence, fear, and killing of snakes for biodiversity conservation and human welfare have rarely been studied. Snake-human interactions and the importance of ethnoherpetology [9] must be considered when planning conservation actions [10, 11]
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