India: From Snake Crisis to Community Care - A Journey of King Cobra Protection

This transformation was led by Murthy Kantimahanti, a participant from one of our capacity-building workshops.

Conflict: South India is home to the world’s largest venomous snake - the King Cobra. In a country where snakebite kills around 50,000 people each year, mostly in rural areas, fear of snakes runs deep. King Cobras are often killed on sight. Past conservation efforts have struggled to gain traction, due to widespread fear and misinformation, distrust of government initiatives and strong resistance within local communities who have long felt overlooked and unheard.

Our Role: The Houston Zoo has long supported its conservation partners and staff in participating in our workshops, recognizing the consistent and transformative results they deliver for both people and conservation. In 2019, they sponsored Murthy Kantimahanti, a conservation biologist from South India, who had spent years working to protect snakes and save lives. He attended our 5-day Conservation Conflict Transformation (CCT) workshop that year.

Immediately upon returning to India, and drawing on CCT principles and strategies, Murthy led a powerful shift in his team’s approach - moving from a focus on education to one centered on building relationships. The conservation team began engaging more deeply with community concerns, including fear, safety, distrust, and exclusion.

Result: The impact was swift and significant. In 3 months, the conservation team gained trust by addressing community needs beyond snakes: 18 villages that once killed every snake on sight stopped the practice entirely, choosing instead to call the Snake conservation team for assistance. Within a year, the shift had expanded to more than 35 villages actively engaged in King Cobra conservation – this dramatic transformation occurring even as covid-19 incurred enormous challenges for the team’s work with the local communities. Within the first year of the revised project approach, snakebite incidents declined, and during COVID-19 lockdowns, local communities who are now trained, continued to rescue snakes independently. More King Cobras were left alone than needed to be rescued, signaling a true cultural shift. Perhaps what’s more, local residents who once distrusted both conservationists and the government, began reaching out to government officials directly for support. These outcomes reflect not just conservation success, but a deeper reconciliation of relationships between people, wildlife, and institutions. In the years since, this incredible work has continued to expand.