World snake day - July 16 | 5% to sl-charity

Yesterday( july 16) is celebrated as world snake day,and is dedicated to increase awareness on snake conservation around the world.

_{www.facebook.com/groups/653799404751862/permalink/2411797672285351/?sfnsn=mo}

Totally there are 3500 species of snakes around the world and arguably one of the most feared set of creatures by humans in general. But they does a significant job in balancing the ecosystems and need to recognize their contribution and increase the awareness to reduce the massacres happening all over the world, whether they are venomous or non venomous.

In Sri Lanka there are 108 species found and 15 of them are found in sea and all of them are deadly venomous but as they live in deep ocean, there’s no potential harm to people. Out of the remaining 93, only 5 are highly venomous snakes and most of the others are non venomous, innocent creatures.
Previously I wrote a detailed article on highly venomous snakes of the island, you can view it in here if interested.So the big five would be,

1. Indian Cobra- නාගයා
2. Russell's viper තිත් පොළගා
3. Saw scaled viper වැලි පොළගා
4. Common Indian krait තෙල් කරවැලා
5. Sri Lankan krait මුදු කරවැලා(endemic )

Besides them, pit vipers (කුණකටුවා ) is also considered as a high venomous snake as there are increment in deaths reported due to their bites. Russell's viper causes the most number of deaths due to snake bites in Sri Lanka bit considering the venom only, common Indian krait holds the number one spot in the list.

_{www.facebook.com/groups/653799404751862/permalink/2411797672285351/?sfnsn=mo}

In Sri Lanka there are a lot of myths on snakes and that causes tremendous deaths of these innocent creatures. For example, most people think python is a venomous snake due to his size and patterns but it is a completely non venomous one. Another is, people believe that cat snake (මාපිලා) is also a highly venomous but it’s a non venomous as well and all the the mind blowing stories regarding them are myths. And people think the more beautiful the snake, the more venomous it is which is completely misunderstanding.

So from our childhood our muscle memory is trained as “ if you see a snake, just kill it” . So this mindset can be only changed by spreading awareness and educating ourselves about the true facts and I firmly believe that education is the best way of conservation.Deforestation causes them to lose their natural habitat and hence move towards human domestics and that causes a high probability of dying. Conflicts between domesticated pets and snakes are another huge factor that we don’t consider much but per year, a significant amount of snakes die in such a manner
So on this day, let’s get educated and conserve the snakes for the betterment of ecosystems! 🐍

-Ceylonese Eye-.