THIS DO-GOODER SAVES SNAKEBITE VICTIMS
The Panjab University graduate and former national level athlete provides anti-venom treatment to villagers in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri and claims to have saved over 10,000 lives in 49 years
LUCKNOW : A 1969 Panjab University graduate and a former national pole vaulter, Kuldeep Singh Dugga had many job offers as a youth. But he preferred to stay back in Lakhimpur Kheri district’s Naurangabad, his home village, to carry forward his family’s legacy of giving free-of-cost anti-venom treatment to snake bite victims. Dugga, now 71, has been giving free of cost treatment through medically-approved-drugs for the last 49 years and claims to have saved over 10,000 lives so far.
A 1969 Panjab University graduate and a former national pole vaulter, Kuldeep Singh Dugga had many job offers as a youth.
But he preferred to stay back in Lakhimpur Kheri district’s Naurangabad, his home village, to carry forward his family’s legacy of giving free-of-cost anti-venom treatment to snake bite victims. The village is infamous for highly venomous snakes like cobra, Russell Viper, krait and mamba.
Dugga, now 71, is a prosperous farmer with over 200 bighas of farmland. He says it was purely ‘seva bhaav’ (the spirit of selfless service) that made him stay back in the village. Dugga has been giving free of cost treatment through medically-approved-drugs for the last 49 years and claims to have saved over 10,000 lives so far.
He is considered be a saviour not only among the people of his district, but also of other districts within a 100kilometre radius that includes areas in Nepal too.
‘DON’T NEED MONEY’
“I don’t need money. By God’s grace, I have everything. My sons are settled—one in Canada and the other is taking care of the farm. It’s purely ‘seva bhaav’ (spirit of selfless service) out of which I give completely free of cost anti-venom treatment to snake bite victims. By treating people, mostly farmers, illiterates and the destitute, we are serving humanity. It gives us immense satisfaction,” says Dugga.
He strongly believes saving lives is the greatest religion.
Although he has not prepared a record of those whom he has healed in the past 49 years, people of the district say he has saved over 10,000 lives so far.
People say Dugga has not lost a single case so far.
They also says he is often consulted by the doctors for his expertise. The locals have evolved their own language to identify the snakes, calling the cobra ‘Bhaisa Doom’, and Russell Viper ‘Behra Bajaj’.
Only 30% snakes are poisonous and many of the people bitten by the reptile die out of fear and heart attack. Ramesh Pandey, field director of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, says since the district is in the Terai region, it is home to a wide variety of snakes.
INHERITED THE ‘ART ’ FROM MOTHER
Dugga inherited the ‘art of healing’ from his mother Harvansh Kaur, who used to administer anti-venom medicines to the rural folk.
“In those days too, snakebite used to be a major concern for the people here. It was for the same reason that a Kanpur-based medicine company that used to manufacture an antivenom oil, ‘Kaalia tel’, had set up a camp in our village and my mother had volunteered to administer the oil to snakebite victims,” Dugga said.
Dugga, who had just completed his graduation from Panjab University, was on vacation at his home village Naurangabad, when snakes bit a farmer. The farmer was taken to his (Dugga’s) mother for treatment, but he could not be saved as he was brought almost an hour after the snake bite.
“The farmer’s death shocked me. I decided to stay back in the village and help those who suffer snake bite,” he said.
IDENTIFYING SNAKE THROUGH BITE MARK
“Each snake attacks in a different way. The nature of venom too differs and affects the human body differently. In the case of a cobra bite, the colour of the pupil will change and the distance between the bite mark of the two teeth will be less than half a centimetre,” he says. Similarly, the bite mark of Russell viper is a bit wider than that of the cobra.
‘I AM NO QUACK’
Dugga says he doesn’t believe in superstition, nor does he have magical ‘herbs’ or an ancestral recipe.
“I simply use the medicines that are prescribed for the snakebites. I am no quack who fools people, ”he says. But medicines are of no help if not used in a proper way or in accordance with the nature of venom.
HANDLING SNAKE-BITE CASES WITH EXPERTISE
On an average, the 71-year-old snakebite healer receives more than five to six cases a day. And of these, a large number of cases are of cobra bite. How are snake bite cases treated?
“The snake is identified either through the bite mark, colour of the pupil and change in body colour,” he says. Soon after, a cut is made at the place of the bite from where the blood is sucked-out using a suction pump. Thereafter, medicines are given. If the patient’s condition is serious, Dugga is often assisted by a doctor to inject medicines and prevent blood clotting. It takes almost two hours to bring the patient back to normalcy.
He claims he hasn’t lost a single case in his 49-year-long practice as a snakebite healer.
Snake-human encounters are more frequent in summer and in the rainy season, he says.
RECOUNTING A CHALLENGE
A snake bit one Suresh, a farmhand, on the head. “Since a field was nearby, the fellow workers rushed him to my (Dugga’s) place within minutes. But there was no way to stop the blood circulation. Had a limb been bitten, it could have been tied to stop the blood circulation in rest of the body,” he recollects.
Dugga says he placed a suction pump on the victim’s head to suck out the blood and administered heavy doses of medicines that prevented him from fainting. “By God’s grace we managed to save him,” he says.
BITTEN 13 TIMES BY SAME SERPENT
The case of a boy of Naurangabad who was bitten 13 times by the same snake was the most unusual one.
“I still remember the day, around six years back, when he was brought by his family for the first time. And it was followed by another 12 times. Every time, it was the same snake that bit him in the fields. The snake did not attack the other family members who were working in the same field. The question as to why the snake was after him still bothers me,” he said.
He managed to treat the boy every time and at last asked him to wear gumboots while working in the fields. In fact, it was after this incident that the Kauriala Ghat Gurudwara management on the India-Nepal border provided vehicles to ferry people in need to Dugga.