The New Town authorities will start organising workshops on first-aid techniques for snakebites from Saturday.
Forest officials and independent experts will teach residents how to deal with a snake if one is spotted in a house, apartment or in the common area of a housing complex.
A senior NKDA (New Town Kolkata Development Authority) official said the workshops would be held by experts from the forest department aswell as members of NGOs that rescue and rehabilitate snakes.
The move came after two men in their 20s lost their lives to snakebites and a Class X student landed in hospital after she got bitten by a snake in front of her house in New Town.
According to the official, they have mapped out zones where snakes are being sighted regularly and have also prepared a list of the most vulnerable housing complexes and cooperative societies.
Several areas of Action Areas II and III have been marked as “particularly vulnerable”.
Officials from the forest department, doctors, independent snake experts and NKDA officials will start visiting housing complexes from Saturday.
“The first-aid techniques for snakebite victims are crucial and are different from general first aid. We will teach whoever attends these workshops what to do after a snakebite,” said a senior forest official.
“We will also tell residents not to do things shown in movies — such as trying to suck the poison out or cutting open the wound to let the venom out through blood,” the official said.
Herpetologist Anirban Chaudhuri, who has conducted such workshops in New Town and Rajarhat, said sightings of snakes is not unusual during rainy season.
“In case of a snakebite, the first step should be to administer first aid and rush the person to the nearest hospital,” Chaudhuri said.
Another NKDA official said that at the workshop they will make a list all the urban primary healthcare centres that are equipped with anti-venom and other medicines needed to treat snakebite victims.
There are three urban primary healthcare centres in New Town — near the New Town Business Club, in front of the New Town fairground opposite Novotel Hotel and at Akankha More in Action Area III — that are equipped to treat snakebite victims.