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Snakebites Kill 50,000 People Every Year in India

Healthcare workers in India face challenges administering antivenom - the life-saving antibodies that neutralize toxins in venom. (Getty Images)
Healthcare workers in India face challenges administering antivenom - the life-saving antibodies that neutralize toxins in venom. (Getty Images)
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Snakebites Kill 50,000 People Every Year in India

Healthcare workers in India face challenges administering antivenom - the life-saving antibodies that neutralize toxins in venom. (Getty Images)
Healthcare workers in India face challenges administering antivenom - the life-saving antibodies that neutralize toxins in venom. (Getty Images)

Devendra, who was a farmer in India, still remembers the moment a snake sank its fangs into his leg while he was picking mulberry leaves.

“I went to the hospital four days after I was bitten, when the pain became unbearable. But the delay cost me my leg,” he said in a short film released by Global Snakebite Taskforce (GST), an initiative working to reduce deaths and injuries by snakebites, reported the BBC.

But Devendra is still among the lucky few to have survived.

According to the federal government, around 50,000 Indians are killed by snakebites each year - roughly half of all deaths worldwide. Some estimates suggest the toll could be even higher: between 2000 and 2019, India may have seen as many as 1.2 million deaths, an average of 58,000 per year, a 2020 study said.

Now, a new report by GST has found that 99% of healthcare workers in India face challenges administering antivenom - the life-saving antibodies that neutralize toxins in venom.

Researchers surveyed 904 medical professionals across India, Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria, the countries most affected by snakebites, and found similar barriers: poor infrastructure, limited access to antivenom and insufficient training.

In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) formally listed snakebite envenoming or poisoning as a “highest priority neglected tropical disease” because of the high number of deaths caused by it. An estimated 5.4 million people worldwide are bitten by snakes each year and more than 100,000 die from annually, according to the WHO.

It also states that snakebites disproportionately affect poor rural communities in low and middle-income countries.

In India, a high concentration of snakebite deaths and injuries are reported in the central and eastern regions, said Dr. Yogesh Jain, a GST member and practitioner in the central Chhattisgarh state. He added that people working in farms, including those from poor tribal communities, remain most vulnerable.

In 2024, India launched the National Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Snakebite Envenoming (NAPSE) with the aim to halve snakebite deaths by 2030. The plan focuses on better surveillance, improved antivenom availability and research, enhanced medical capacity and public awareness campaigns.

Experts agree it is a step in the right direction, but implementation has been inconsistent.

“In India, snakebites are seen as a poor person's problem,” Jain said. “That's why there isn't enough outrage or action over these completely avoidable deaths. When it comes to treating snakebites, every second counts.”

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Australian Police Hunt Thieves in $250,000 Oyster Heist

Oysters are a staple of brunch menus and seafood buffets across Australia. (Getty Images)
Oysters are a staple of brunch menus and seafood buffets across Australia. (Getty Images)
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Australian Police Hunt Thieves in $250,000 Oyster Heist

Oysters are a staple of brunch menus and seafood buffets across Australia. (Getty Images)
Oysters are a staple of brunch menus and seafood buffets across Australia. (Getty Images)

Australian police said Wednesday they were on the hunt for thieves who made off with hundreds of thousands of oysters.

The mollusks have an estimated total value of Aus$350,000 (US$250,000) and were lifted from an oyster farm near the town of Taree, north of Sydney, New South Wales police said.

Over three hundred bags, containing 400,000 oysters, were stolen.

Police are urging the public to come forward with any information they might have about the theft, which they said happened "earlier this year" but was only reported to them on Tuesday.

Oysters are a staple of brunch menus and seafood buffets across Australia, with local varieties famed for their rich, creamy flavor.

Oyster grower Ryan Freeman told national broadcaster ABC he had lost a third of his stock.

"We probably get through 35,000 to 40,000 dozen at Christmas time," he said.

"That's why the thieves would have targeted them because they're not going to be far off, they're going to be able to sell them this Christmas," he added.

"It's going to have a massive impact."

Varieties

New NASA Telescope to Probe Dark Energy, Dark Matter and Exoplanets

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope stands after engineers and technicians working inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility mated the observatory to its payload adapter and a strut payload attach fitting, a specialized piece of hardware designed for large, heavy loads at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape, Canaveral, Florida, US August 7, 2026 NASA/Jolearra Tshiteya via REUTERS
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope stands after engineers and technicians working inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility mated the observatory to its payload adapter and a strut payload attach fitting, a specialized piece of hardware designed for large, heavy loads at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape, Canaveral, Florida, US August 7, 2026 NASA/Jolearra Tshiteya via REUTERS
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New NASA Telescope to Probe Dark Energy, Dark Matter and Exoplanets

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope stands after engineers and technicians working inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility mated the observatory to its payload adapter and a strut payload attach fitting, a specialized piece of hardware designed for large, heavy loads at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape, Canaveral, Florida, US August 7, 2026 NASA/Jolearra Tshiteya via REUTERS
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope stands after engineers and technicians working inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility mated the observatory to its payload adapter and a strut payload attach fitting, a specialized piece of hardware designed for large, heavy loads at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape, Canaveral, Florida, US August 7, 2026 NASA/Jolearra Tshiteya via REUTERS

NASA is preparing to launch its next flagship space observatory, one that scientists plan to use to investigate some of the universe's biggest mysteries including dark energy and dark matter, while also testing gravity at vast scales and hunting for planets beyond our solar system.

The launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a roughly $4 billion project, is planned for Sunday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the observatory to be lofted into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The launch comes nine months ahead of schedule, according to US space agency officials.

Roman is a follow-on to the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, and the James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021, and has capabilities that can expand on the knowledge gained by those pioneering observatories, both of which continue to operate.

The new telescope's panoramic view of space and its rapid survey speeds offer the opportunity for scientists to study the cosmos as never before, with wide-field surveys examining its structure, composition and evolution.

"Roman's vast reach will allow us to find the weird, the rare and the unusual," Julie McEnery, Roman's senior project scientist ⁠at NASA's Goddard ⁠Space Flight Center in Maryland, told reporters.

"Roman's primary instrument combines exquisite performance and sensitivity with the ability to quickly and efficiently survey the large regions of the sky," Reuters quoted McEnery as saying.

The telescope's main survey will take more than a year, McEnery said.

"The survey will contain over two billion galaxies and enable us to study how the structures in our universe — the stars, the galaxies, the clusters of galaxies — grew and evolved. We'll also measure how our universe has expanded over time. And these are the keys that will allow us to unlock the fundamental nature of dark matter and dark energy and the fabric of the universe itself," McEnery said.

The Big Bang event roughly 13.8 billion years ago initiated the universe, and ⁠it has been expanding ever since. Scientists in 1998 disclosed that this expansion was actually accelerating, with an invisible force called dark energy as the hypothesized reason.

The universe's contents include ordinary matter — stars, planets, gas, dust and all the familiar stuff on Earth — as well as dark matter and dark energy, whose physical nature remains unknown. Ordinary matter represents perhaps 5% of the contents. Dark matter, known through its gravitational influences on galaxies and stars, may represent about 27%. Dark energy may represent about 68%.

"The key questions are: Is dark energy simply a property of empty space that remains constant over time, or does it evolve in time?" cosmologist Mustapha Ishak of the University of Texas at Dallas, a member of Roman's scientific collaboration, told Reuters.

"The recent results from the DESI — Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument — collaboration indicate tantalizing hints of a time evolution of dark energy.

Could the observed acceleration instead indicate that our theory of gravity needs modification on the largest scales? Answering these questions is one of the most important goals of modern cosmology," Ishak said.

Physicist Albert Einstein in 1915 presented his theory of general ⁠relativity explaining gravity, and it ⁠remains foundational.

Roman will map how galaxies cluster and how matter bends light through a phenomenon called gravitational lensing.

"These measurements allow us to test whether Einstein's theory remains valid across billions of light-years or whether modifications to gravity (theory) are required," said Ishak. "This is important because it addresses one of the most fundamental questions in physics: What law governs the universe on its largest scales?"

To date, more than 6,350 exoplanets — planets outside our solar system — have been discovered, as scientists search for evidence of potential life beyond Earth.

Roman will conduct one of the most comprehensive searches ever for exoplanets. It is expected to discover thousands of new ones and provide the first statistical census of planetary systems similar to our own. It also will demonstrate new technology to directly image some relatively nearby exoplanets.

After launch and separation from the rocket, the telescope will travel toward a location called Lagrange Point 2, situated about a million miles (1.6 million km) from Earth, about four times the distance to the moon. Webb also resides at this orbital location. Hubble is in low-Earth orbit.

Roman's mission is planned for five years, though NASA said the telescope may have enough fuel for five additional years. US President Donald Trump's administration tried during both his first and second terms to reduce or eliminate funding for Roman, but Congress preserved it.

The telescope is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief astronomer. Roman died in 2018 at age 93.

Varieties

Nepal PM Allowed to Wear Signature Sunglasses in Parliament

Newly appointed Prime Minister Balendra Shah, popularly known as "Balen," looks on during his oath ceremony at "Shital Niwas," presidential building in Kathmandu, Nepal, March 27, 2026. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar/File Photo
Newly appointed Prime Minister Balendra Shah, popularly known as "Balen," looks on during his oath ceremony at "Shital Niwas," presidential building in Kathmandu, Nepal, March 27, 2026. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar/File Photo
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Nepal PM Allowed to Wear Signature Sunglasses in Parliament

Newly appointed Prime Minister Balendra Shah, popularly known as "Balen," looks on during his oath ceremony at "Shital Niwas," presidential building in Kathmandu, Nepal, March 27, 2026. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar/File Photo
Newly appointed Prime Minister Balendra Shah, popularly known as "Balen," looks on during his oath ceremony at "Shital Niwas," presidential building in Kathmandu, Nepal, March 27, 2026. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar/File Photo

Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah may keep his signature dark sunglasses on in the legislature due to medical reasons, an official said Tuesday, after the parliament speaker had advised against it.

The rapper-turned-politician better known as "Balen" has rarely been seen in public without his trademark rectangular shades.

The 36-year-old premier has been seen wearing them everywhere from campaign rallies to official engagements and even in his formal portrait after taking office in March.

Earlier this month, Speaker Dol Prasad Aryal advised against wearing dark glasses in the chamber, citing criticism by the public that such eyewear is out of place in the national legislature.

But Shah appears to have won an exemption.

"A report has been submitted to the secretariat pointing to medical reasons for the respected prime minister to need sunglasses," the parliament secretariat's deputy spokesman Ananta Prasad Koirala told AFP.

Koirala said Shah would be allowed to wear the glasses in parliament if they were medically necessary in bright light.

Shah, who has kept a low profile since taking office, is expected to appear for a parliament session on Wednesday.

The dark glasses, often paired with an all-black outfit, have become a defining feature of Shah's public persona since his successful campaign to become the mayor of Kathmandu in 2022.

Their popularity has surged, with shops selling lookalike eyewear as "Balen sunglasses" to customers keen to emulate Shah's style.