KARACHI, July 27: Hundreds of poisonous snakes, captured in Sindh without permission of the provincial wildlife department, are taken to the Islamabad-based National Institute of Health every year for the preparation of anti-snake venom serum (ASVS).

All these snakes, kept in unnatural conditions, die prematurely after being milked twice or thrice, Dawn has learnt.

According to sources, the NIH’s demand for the snake species, all types of poisonous snakes, has fallen over the years.

A few years ago, 5,000 to 10,000 snakes used to be captured in Sindh, but now their number has come down to 2,000. The NIH has been producing ASVS since 1960s for public sector hospitals.

Wildlife experts say the practice in vogue for decades has contributed immensely to the depletion of the indigenous snake population in Sindh. Other factors include smuggling of snakes, their local use in manufacturing different products, the loss of habitat due to deforestation, reduced flow of fresh water, large-scale stone excavation, agriculture expansion and extensive use of pesticides.

The NIH gives a yearly contract for snake-catching and the contractor does the job with the help of jogis (snake-charmers) spread all over Sindh.

The snakes are then stuffed into boxes and transported to Islamabad. Dr A.A. Qureshi, a wildlife expert and former director of the Karachi Zoological Gardens, who has remained in contact with some scientists working at the NIH, claims that snakes often die from hunger at the laboratories.

“I came to know the fact from experts who have worked at the NIH. They just don’t feed them their natural food. One wonders why the premier public health laboratories that serve as the sole manufacturer and supplier of ASVS could never set up a reptile house. If snakes are properly fed, not only the quality of venom will improve but one can extract venom from the same snake for many years.”

Deploring what he termed ‘a highly irresponsible methodology’ on part of a scientific organisation, Dr Qureshi said the wrong practice, along with other factors, had caused irreparable damage to the ecology of the areas where these indigenous snakes once lived.

“Snakes are agriculture-friendly reptiles and feed on field rats and other rodents that eat away about 25 per cent of crops in normal conditions. Now, as their number has shrunk, damage to crops has increased up to 40pc. This has disturbed the entire web of life in those areas, the assessment of which has never been done.”

Recollecting his visit to the NIH about 15 years ago, a senior herpetologist told Dawn that he had the opportunity to go inside the laboratories and see hundreds of boxes full of snakes.

“As we came in, the doctor working there disappeared. One of the staff told us that the NIH didn’t have funds to arrange rats for snakes, so they are fed a mixture of milk and eggs.

“A funnel is put inside their mouths for this purpose due to which their fangs, at times, break off. Many die prematurely, as they are kept in unnatural conditions and their skins sold.”

This reporter also came in contact with a snake-charmer operating in Makli who admitted selling snakes to the National Institute of Health (NIH). The man in his late 70s, wishing not be named, claimed to have a permit from the laboratories and had been selling snakes to a contractor for the NIH for decades.

“I am unable to do the job on my own now, but all snake-charmers operating in Sindh know me very well. I ask them to collect snakes for me. I arrange around 400 to 500 snakes whenever asked for,” he said while complaining of low prices now snakes fetch.

The NIH’s stand