With monsoon setting in, snakebites are on the rise

70 persons suffer snakebites in four months in Narayangaon area Ten-year-old Hrishikesh Wable from Junnar taluka in Pune district did not realise he was bitten by a snake till he was gasping for breath and could not walk. Villagers who wasted precious time thinking it was a "scorpion" bite instead took him to a "tantrik" to cure him. However. when he turned unconscious, the relatives rushed him to Narayangaon, 20 km away from the Wadgaon Sahane village where he was put on the sole ventilator at the Dr Jal Mehta Rural Critical Care Centre.