The Irula Co-operative society is a self-help project recognised by the State government of Tamil Nadu. The project taps the skills of the Irula tribe in venom production, rodent control and termite control. The Irulas are expert snake catchers and this skill was earlier being exploited by smuggling cartels to procure snakeskins for the international market. But following the ban of this trade for ecological reasons, the Irulas were deprived their means of living. The Irula Snake Catcher’s Society now buys venomous snakes from the Irula members, extracts the venom and then the snakes are released back to the wild. The venom is then sold to laboratories.
The antidote is prepared by injecting a small and non lethal dose of venom ‘milked’ from the fangs of a live King Cobra, into a healthy horse. Once the horse’s body has developed antibodies to the venom, blood is removed from the jugular vein of the horse. The blood is then mixed with an anticoagulant and a preservative, and the antibodies are separated and stored as antivenin.

The snakes from which venom is extracted are known as the ‘Big Four’. They are the most dangerous snakes in India - the Cobra, Krait, Russells Viper and Saw scaled Viper. The venom is extracted at the Snake Venom Extraction Centre located in the precincts of the Madras Crocodile Bank (MCB) on East Coast Road.

Uses of Snake Venom

Snake venom is used to make anti-venom serum – the only real cure for snakebites. Another use of snake venom is in medicine, as it contains many useful enzymes, proteins and toxins. Russells Viper Venom is a coagulant and is used to control bleeding, while Cobra venom is used to control Cancer and also relieve pain.

Captive breeding of King Cobra at Madras Crocodile Bank

The Madras Crocodile Bank or Centre for Herpetology successfully bred King Cobras in 1996. 29 hatchlings resulted from the eggs of three females. Although King Cobras are primarily snake-eaters in nature, the hatchlings and the adults that produced them have become accustomed to feeding on rats. The largest of the hatchlings is now 2.45 meters and the others average 1.2 – 1.4 meters.