A Tamil Nadu Man instigated to eat snake as Covid antibiotic, arrested, fined; culprits at large

The naive victim Vadivel

A man from Tamil Nadu was arrested and has fined ₹7,000 for eating a snake. Disturbing visuals of Vadivel, a 50-year-old agriculture coolie, eating a venomous snake had surfaced on social media earlier this week. He was heard claiming that snakes were good antidotes to Covid-19 in a video that has been circulating online. Vadivel was arrested by the forest department of India on Thursday.

The man belongs to the Perumal Patti village in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli district, was fined ₹ 7,000 for the "crime" after environmentalists alerted police to the video.

However, Madurai District Forest Officer S Anand told that he had been inebriated at the time of the incident and had been instigated to eat the snake by other people. Luckily for Vadivel, he did not bite into the venom glands of the snake, which was identified as a common krait. The common krait is a species of highly venomous snakes native to the Indian subcontinent. Its venom consists of powerful neurotoxins that can even be fatal for humans if not treated.

The snake had been found dead in a drain, the DFO said, adding that people who instigated him to eat it also egged him on to make misleading statements on Covid.

The horrific incident is also an eye opener about who is instigating naive, gullible villagers to spread misleading statements about Covid and snake as anti-biotic to it, and (then?) eat snake to die! Leaving no witness/traces behind?

The naive poor villager was fined an amount for committing a crime unknowingly. Is it actually more of an environmental problem that a snake goes missing, found dead and not a human's plight, highly under pressure to save himself from Covid even by risking his health?

Doesn't it smell of a racket operating in the area? What is police doing to nab those who instigated the man to eat and spread misinformation about Covid, need to be answered.