Catching the Cobra
Their leather is valuable, but their venom is even more highly prized, because it can save lives. India’s cobras and vipers used to be hunted and killed for their skin, but today the poisonous snakes are protected. In fact, their poison has become so valuable in anti-venom production and pharmaceutical research that a backward caste, the Irula people of Southern India, has made a living of catching and milking the venomous four: Cobrs, Krait, Russels Viper and Sawscale Viper. A report for Deutsche Welle TV (German version here).