How useful are snake apps?

It was around 4am on 9 February when wildlife conservationist Vijay Neelakantan’s cellphone pinged. It’s one of a handful of recently created Indian apps that collate information on snakes, how to respond to snakebites, how to connect to certified rescuers in real time, and which hospitals to rush to. Each app offers information on, and photographs of, Indian snakes, ways to identify the venomous ones, snakebite management, a list of local rescuers and hospitals with anti-snake venom. It’s not enough to translate snake names; the apps have to provide local names so users can understand, says Varad Giri, senior scientist at the Bombay Natural History Society. It’s a lesson Maharashtra-based software engineer Amol Jadhav, who created Snake Friend in 2017, only learnt after two rescuer friends died of snakebites.