Asia's flood victims face deadly new threat - snakes

MATTHEW ROSENBERG IN NEW DELHI

SOUTHERN Asia's monsoon is a disaster of epic proportions. Torrential rains have flooded rivers, submerged villages and farmland, and left 19 million people stranded across much of northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal in the past two weeks.

The death toll yesterday stood at more than 2,000.

Amid the homelessness and fears of epidemics, another deadly factor has come into play: snakes.

The rains that flood wide stretches of the subcontinent each year force creatures large and small, harmless and deadly, on to whatever dry land can be found, and the result is scores, if not hundreds, of fatal snake bites.

Full Story