NAROWAL: During the monsoon and floods in Narowal district, rescue teams have caught 342 snakes, including pythons and cobras, while 64 people were injured due to snakebites.

District Emergency Officer Engineer Aurangzeb told Dawn that during the monsoon and floods, the control room received phone calls from houses, streets, animal shelters and other places to catch 401 poisonous snakes.

The rescue teams had responded to the citizens’ phone calls and caught 342 snakes, including poisonous ones, from all three tehsils.

“The rescue teams caught 133 snakes from Narowal tehsil, 128 from Shakargarh and 81 from Zafarwal, while 59 snakes had gone missing during the flood before the teams arrived. The rescuers had conducted search operations to catch the missing snakes but were not successful.”

Engineer Aurangzeb said 64 phone calls of snakebites were received, including 15 from Narowal, 38 from Shakargarh and 11 phone calls of snakebites were received from Zafarwal.

He said that the rescuers provided first aid to all the snakebite victims, including women and children, and shifted them to hospitals on time.

“The rescuers caught five pythons (eight to twenty feet long), 48 black cobras, 73 cobras and 216 other types of snakes. The caught snakes were released in different forests of Narowal district.”

Dr Muhammad Adnan, chief executive officer of the District Health Authority, Narowal, said snakebite vaccines were available free of cost in sufficient quantities at public hospitals.

Deputy Commissioner said that during the monsoon and floods, human lives were saved with timely response of the Rescue 1122 and health department.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2025