India, Feb. 2 -- Devendra, a farmer from India, recalls the day a snake bit his leg while he was collecting mulberry leaves. "I reached the hospital four days later, when the pain became unbearable. But by then, it was too late to save my leg," he says in a short film by the Global Snakebite Taskforce (GST), an initiative focused on reducing snakebite deaths and injuries. Reported by BBC.

Devendra survived, but many are not so lucky. Government data shows that roughly 50,000 people die from snakebites in India each year, accounting for nearly half of global deaths.

Some studies suggest the real toll could be higher: between 2000 and 2019, India may have recorded as many as 1.2 million fatalities from snakebites, averaging 58,000 deaths ...