Daily Dose / Oct 2, 2026 / Snakebite

The Monsoon Bite

Snakebite is the neglected tropical disease that kills quietly, mostly in farm fields and village homes during the rains. One country carries most of the world's toll, and most of those deaths never reach a hospital record.

58,000

Indians killed by snakebite every year on average, 2000–2019. That is roughly one death every nine minutes, and 1.2 million in two decades.

81,410–137,880

people die of snakebite worldwide each year (WHO range)

5.4 million

people bitten each year; 1.8–2.7 million of them are envenomed

1 in 250

chance an Indian dies of snakebite before age 70

01 · The scale of risk

A spectrum that bends toward the Ganges plain

Age-standardised snakebite deaths per 100,000 people, 2019. The world average is under one; parts of northern and central India run above six.

07 deaths per 100,000 (age-standardised)

Source: GBD 2019 Snakebite Envenomation Collaborators, Nature Communications (2022). Sub-Saharan values are the Western (1.4), Central (1.3) and Eastern (1.2) GBD regions.

02 · Who bears it

India: four in every five snakebite deaths

Estimated snakebite deaths by country, 2019. India's 51,100 is about 81% of the global 63,400; all of South Asia is 86%.

Source: GBD 2019 Snakebite Envenomation Collaborators (2022), via Our World in Data. Modelled estimates with wide uncertainty (India 95% UI: 29,600–64,100). WHO's wider global range (81k–138k) reflects different methods.

03 · Where in India

Eight states, seven in ten deaths

Estimated snakebite deaths in the eight highest-burden states, 2001–2014. Bubble area is proportional to deaths.

~70%

of India's snakebite deaths occur in these eight states, mostly on low-lying farmland: over 80% happen below 400 metres altitude.

153,600

deaths in Uttar Pradesh alone over 2001–2014, the most of any state.

Source: Suraweera et al., Million Death Study, eLife (2020). Schematic outline, not survey-accurate. *Andhra Pradesh on pre-2014 boundaries (includes today's Telangana).

04 · When and how

The rains bring the bites

Half of India's snakebite deaths fall in the June–September monsoon, when farmers work flooded fields and snakes are pushed toward homes.

Estimated deaths per day

Peak monsoon kills almost four times as many people a day as the dry-season low.

Snakes identified in hospital studies

Who dies: share of deaths by age, 2000–2019

50%

of deaths in the June–September monsoon

94%

of deaths in rural areas

77%

of deaths happen outside a hospital

Source: Suraweera et al., eLife (2020). Species shares come from hospital-based studies; "Other" is the remainder not itemised there.

05 · The trend

Falling, but too slowly for the 2030 goal

Global age-standardised snakebite death rate per 100,000. It fell 36% from 1990 to 2019, but forecasts show only a small further decline, well short of WHO's goal to halve deaths by 2030.

Source: GBD 2019 Snakebite Envenomation Collaborators (2022); WHO Snakebite Strategy (2019). *Derived values: 1990 ≈1.25 is back-calculated from the 0.8 rate and the reported 36% fall; 2030 ≈0.73 applies the forecast 8.6% decrease; the ≈0.4 goal marker is illustrative (half the 2019 rate). Only 1990 and 2019 are plotted; intermediate years are omitted. India's own rate fell only ~0.8% a year in 2001–2014 (Million Death Study).

06 · The cost

The deaths are only part of the count

Survivors lose limbs, kidneys and livelihoods, and official records miss most of the dead.

~3×

as many amputations and permanent disabilities as deaths each year

WHO, 2023

10%

of expected hospital snakebite deaths captured in India's public-facility records

Million Death Study, 2020

2.94M

years of life lost worldwide in 2019, because victims are often young

GBD 2019, 2022

28%

of India's snakebite deaths are children under 15