About 1,000 educational institutions covered under “SARPA Padam’ awareness programme on snakes

About 1,000 educational institutions in the State have been covered under “SARPA Padam,” a snake-related awareness program launched by the Kerala Forest Department this year.

The idea is to cover all educational institutions ranging from anganwadis to colleges during this academic year. As per the General Education Department’s data, there are 36,000 educational institutions up to higher secondary level in Kerala. “SARPA Padam,” is an extension of department’s initiative SARPA, Snake Awareness Rescue and Protection App, a digital platform for various matters related to snakes and snake bites.

“We have trained a group of 70 educators to conduct the hour-long awareness classes in educational institutions. This include both the staff of the forest department including social forestry wing and volunteers. We are in the process of training additional batches of educators. We have prepared a compact digital content complete with power point presentation for the educators to follow a uniform content and to cover all crucial aspects during the class,” said Muhammed Anvar, assistant conservator and State nodal officer for SARPA, Kerala Forest department.

The content among other things cover the ecological significance of conserving snakes, different species of snakes, how to recognise dangerous species, different types of venom and anti-venom, how to avoid snake bite, do’s and dont’s in the event of bite etc.

A safety audit for the possible presence of snakes was held under SARPA in educational institutions, including anganwadis, ahead of the start of the academic year and snakes were indeed caught from some places. “We gave instructions to remove building materials found carelessly dumped providing safe haven for snakes near areas with frequent movement of students, clean up premises, including even parts of grounds, to protect children going to fetch balls, remove tree branches and plants hanging over school roofs, especially tiled ones, properly lock doors and windows, and keep the areas near computer labs clean since snakes could snuggle into footwear, which students are asked to remove before entering labs,” said Mr. Anvar.

Apart from educational institutions, awareness classes are also held for other vulnerable target groups like workers participating in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Program, Kudumbashree members, farmers etc.