In India, more than 60 species of venomous snakes are found from Himalayas down to Cape Comorin and snake bite envenoming is an ever present occupational risk and environmental hazard. According to WHO direct estimates India has the highest number of deaths due to snake bites in the world with 35,000–50,000 people dying per year....

Since the dawn of civilization, snakes have inspired a mystic feeling of good and evil in human mind. It has appeared in various mythologies, either as demon or as a god.In Greek mythology it represented Goddess Hygeia and was worshipped along with Asclepius, the God of Health....