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Venomous snakes
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| sri lanka has 93 species of land, fresh water and sea snakes. most of them are harmless afew are considered highly venomous, often deadly, while some are moderately or mildly venomous. Almost all deaths from snake-bite in Sri lanka are caused by four out of the five species of highly venomous land snakes. These are the Russell's viper, cobra, common krait and Sri lankan krait. The fifth species, the saw-scaled viper, though highly venomous, has not reportedly caused deaths in Sri lanka. Table 1 lists their scientific and local names. |  |
Thirteen species of sea snakes have been found in our coastal waters. They are al highly venomous. However,they are not a significant cause of death from snake-bite in Sri lanka, for only one death has been reported.
Among moderately venomous snakes (Table 2), tow are considered important, namely the hump-nosed viper and green pit viper. A few deaths have been reported in Srilanka following hump-nosed viper bites, but there has been none after green pit viper bites.
Mildly venomous snakes (Table 3) have not caused signifcant medical problems. Included in this group are the cat snakes (mapila). These snakes have earned an un justified reputation in Sri lanka as being highly venomous. They are back-fanged and cannot therefore efficiently deliver venom into humans. There have been no documented deaths from the bites of these snakes, which may cause local pain and swelling
