Mumbai: Maharashtra’s decision to treat snakebite as a notifiable disease is an important public-health step. But the deaths of three tribal girl students at a government Ashram school in Gadchiroli show why notification alone is not enough.
The girls were among six students bitten by a snake while they were sleeping on the floor at the residential school. Three died. The incident raised serious questions about hostel conditions, supervision, emergency response and access to timely treatment.
This is where the new policy will be tested.
Once snakebite becomes notifiable, government and private hospitals will have to report cases and deaths to health authorities. This should help the State understand where snakebites are happening, which areas are becoming hotspots, where Anti-Snake Venom is most needed and where treatment facilities are weak.
BJP MLA Vikram Pachpute, who had raised the issue in the Assembly on June 30, has welcomed the government’s decision and credited sustained follow-up. He has also said that his next priority will be revival of Haffkine’s snakebite research capacity and creation of a Regional Venom Bank in Maharashtra.
These are important issues. But one part of the chronology needs clarification.
A Lok Sabha reply dated March 30, 2026 had already listed Maharashtra among the states that had declared snakebite cases and deaths notifiable. The State government should therefore clarify when the notification actually came into force and what additional operational changes have now been introduced.
That clarification matters because the real value of notification lies not in the order itself, but in what the government does with the data.
If Gadchiroli records repeated snakebite cases, will Ashram schools be inspected? Will children still sleep on the floor? Will wardens be present at night? Will nearby hospitals have adequate ASV? Will ambulances and referral centres be identified in advance?
These are not theoretical questions. They can decide whether a patient survives.
The National Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Snakebite Envenoming already calls for better surveillance, stronger emergency care, ambulance services, digital monitoring of antivenom availability, research and regional venom centres.
Maharashtra now has an opportunity to use the notification as the starting point for a much wider system.
The State should identify high-risk districts and blocks, map ASV availability, designate snakebite-ready hospitals and establish clear referral protocols. In tribal and forest areas, particularly residential Ashram schools, there should also be a separate prevention and emergency-response protocol.
Pachpute’s proposal for a Regional Venom Bank and revival of Haffkine’s research role deserves serious consideration, particularly if it is linked to actual field data and scientific research rather than treated merely as an institutional revival project.
There is another gap that often gets ignored: survivors.
Snakebite can leave patients with kidney damage, neurological problems, tissue injury, disability and long-term economic hardship. Maharashtra’s reporting system should eventually track serious complications and rehabilitation, not merely whether a patient lived or died.
The notification is therefore welcome. But the real measure of success will be different.
If a child is bitten in a remote Ashram school in Gadchiroli, the system should already know where the nearest antivenom is available, which hospital can manage a serious case, how quickly the patient can be transported and what treatment is required.
Counting snakebites is necessary. Preventing the next Gadchiroli tragedy is the real test.
