india

Updated: Feb 14, 2020 17:23 IST

A 46-year-old man, who has rescued more than 50,000 snakes and other animals from human habitats, is battling for his life in a hospital in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram after he was bitten by a viper on Thursday while trying to save it.

Friends of Vava Suresh said he was bitten by the pit viper on his middle finger as he was trying to pull it out of a well in Pathanapuram in Kollam district.

He was rushed to the Government Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram and is in an intensive care unit or ICU.

The hospital’s superintendent, Dr MS Sharmad, said Suresh has been administered an anti-venom and will be under observation for at least 72 hours.

Doctors fear the anti-venom injected on Suresh, who has been bitten many times in the past, will have a minimal impact now.

His kidneys, liver and other organs have already been damaged after the many doses of anti-venom and doctors had even warned him on several occasions about the danger.

The hospital was forced to issue a news bulletin after nature-lovers and green activists flooded it with inquiries about Suresh. They believe he will survive again.

Suresh had admitted in a recent interview that he has bitten at least 300 times.

He had rescued a 16-foot king cobra on January 29 from the hut of an estate worker in Bonacaud in Thiruvananthapuram—his 179th rescue of the world’s most venomous snake. A king cobra rarely bites but its venom can kill a human being in minutes.

When Prince Charles visited the state in 2013 he expressed his desire to meet the avid nature-lover.

“Even an elephant dies within half an hour of a king cobra bite. Then how did you rescue so many king cobras? You are a living wonder,” Prince Charles had said after meeting him.

In 2005, he lost his index finger due to a cobra bite and later lost the movement of his right wrist after another attack. His skin is torn on both legs but he continued to devote his life to his reptilian friends.

A living encyclopaedia on snakes, Suresh was offered a government job 10 years ago but he declined it saying he would not be able to devote his time to his first love.

His thatched two-room dwelling in Thiruvananthapuram houses many injured snakes, which he treats before releasing them in the wild.

He has said snakes are most misunderstood creatures in the world.