Students’ perceptions on snake in Northwestern Bangladesh

Abstract

Abstract. Jaman MF, Rabbe MF, Alam MM, Shome AR, Hossain MA, Sarker MAR. 2020. Students’ perceptions on snake in Northwestern Bangladesh. Asian J Ethnobiol 21: 62-69. Human-snake interaction has an ancestral history with different outcomes at different times. This study was done to assess the student's perceptions of snakes and current superstitions practiced in some areas of northwestern Bangladesh. We interviewed 348 students from 7 educational institutions under 3 districts from January 2019 to April 2019. We asked dichotomous (yes-no) question to know perceptions about snakes and variation among superstitions of the students. We found significant variation in responses with respect to the demographic status of the respondents. Religion and education were the most influencing factors affecting the results of students’ perceptions. Among the total respondents, 329 (94.5%) had seen snakes, 182 (52.3%) considered snake as a notorious animal, 224 (64.4%) considered snakes as an economically harmful animal, 155 (44.5%) think killing snake gives a good feeling, 313 (90%) believe that snakes attack humans, 321 (92.2%) students have seen others killing snakes and 127 (36.5%) had killed snakes themselves. Of the five superstitions, “snake can drink milk” was the topmost statement believed by 293 (84.2%) students. Due to these negative attitudes and misconceptions, we assume that snakes are regularly killed and there is a potential risk for population decline.