{"id":24419,"date":"2025-06-19T13:38:55","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T08:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=24419"},"modified":"2025-06-19T13:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T08:21:11","slug":"what-is-russells-viper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-russells-viper\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell\u2019s Viper"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Russell\u2019s Viper Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Studies carried out in mice have demonstrated that two approved drugs \u2014 varespladib and marimastat \u2014 were effective in countering systemic and lethal effects of Russell\u2019s viper (Daboia russelii) venom either individually or in combination.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Russell\u2019s Viper<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Russell\u2019s vipe\u00a0is a <\/span><b>highly venomous<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> terrestrial snake of the family <\/span><b>Viperidae found in Asia.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is one of the <\/span><b>big four snakes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (deadliest snakes) in India, the others being the Common krait (Bungarus caeruleus), the Indian Cobra (Naja naja) and the <\/span><b>Saw-scaled viper<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Echis carinatus).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Russell\u2019s vipers are responsible for over half of India\u2019s snakebite cases.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Habitat: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They tend to <\/span><b>avoid dense forests<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. They are mostly found in <\/span><b>open, grassy, or bushy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> areas, but may also be found in second-growth forests (scrub jungles), on forested plantations, and on farmland.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Distribution:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is found in <\/span><b>India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Pakistan, Cambodia, Tibet, China (Guangxi, Guangdong), Taiwan, and Indonesia.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Features of Russell\u2019s Viper<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The snake can grow up to 1.5 meters and is identified by its distinctive <\/span><b>reddish-brown spots<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> outlined in black and white.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has a wide, triangular head with small, overlapping scales, large nostrils, and small eyes with vertical pupils.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>mainly nocturnal,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> becoming active as the sun fades.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These snakes are <\/span><b>quite sedentary,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> often staying in one place for several days unless disturbed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Conservations Status: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IUCN Red List: Least Concern \u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Highlights of the Study<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Phospholipase A2<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (PLA2), and <\/span><b>Snake Venom Metalloproteinase<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (SVMPs) are two main <\/span><b>components of Russell\u2019s viper snake venom.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These toxins interfere with components of the blood clotting cascade to induce anticoagulant and haemorrhagic effects in humans. While the <\/span><b>varespladib drug inhibits PLA2<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>the marimastat drug inhibits SVMP.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The PLA2 inhibitor varespladib was found to neutralise even the high PLA2 activity of the venom found in Tamil Nadu and Punjab. The varespladib drug effectively inhibited the modest PLA2 activity of the venom from other Indian regions.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/two-existing-drugs-offer-hope-to-cure-russells-viper-bites\/article69707994.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TH<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russell\u2019s Viper is a highly venomous terrestrial snake of the Viperidae family, widely found in Asia and known for its potent hemotoxic venom. Read more about Russell\u2019s Viper, Habitat, Diet, Characteristics, Features, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":50949,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,925,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-24419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-prelims-pointers","9":"tag-russells-viper","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}