Kerala's popular snake catcher Vava Suresh was discharged from the Medical College Hospital in Kottayam after undergoing treatment for a serious snakebite. Scores of people gathered at the hospital on Monday, February 7 to meet him while he was leaving. Vava Suresh had been admitted to the hospital on January 31 after being bitten by a snake at Kurichy in Kottayam district and had been in a critical condition. Kerala Minister for Cooperation and Registration VN Vasavan, who is in-charge of Kottayam district, was with him while the snake-catcher was leaving hospital. Vava had been at the centre of a debate over the ethics of his method of snake-catching after he was bitten by the cobra.
He spoke to the media and addressed the criticism he has been facing over his occupation."There are rumours against me; a campaign of some kind is going on. It was in 2006 that I first gave a training in snake catching to the staff of the Forest Department. I hadn't heard of any other snake-catchers at that time. Now, there is a campaign going on against me," he told the media.Forty-eight-year-old Suresh, in a career spanning over two decades, has caught more than 50,000 snakes, which includes more than 200 King cobras. And in the process he has suffered close to 300 snake bites.In the past, he has survived almost half a dozen lethal bites after spending a lot of time at various hospitals. His treatment was being taken care of by the state government.