The ‘Made in France’ tag for apparel can give a high to any fashion aficionado. But can a ‘Made in France’ tag for snake venom give a kick to some in India? Yes, it seems.
The Border Security Force (BSF) on Wednesday seized a jar carrying 2.14 kg of snake venom, which is valued at ₹17 crore in the international market.
Wrapped in a black plastic bag, the crystal jar was hidden in wild grasses beneath a culvert at Kalibadi village that falls in Dakshin Dinajpur district of West Bengal, leading to the Bangladesh border.
The ‘Red Dragon’ Code
The jar had a tag hanging around it with ‘Cobra SP, Red Dragon, Made in France Code No: 6097’ scribbled on a yellow metal plate.
Similarly, the 61 Battalion of BSF manning the border outpost at Digipara recovered a jar of snake venom from the border area in Dakshin Dinajpur district on September 1, this year.
Vizesh Rana, the Second in Command of North Bengal Frontier Headquarters, BSF, told businessline that the smuggling of snake venoms in dry, gelatine, and liquid forms has picked up since 2017.
However, he admitted they are still trying to decode what ‘Made in France’ tag meant in this illegal trade.
Snake venoms and rave parties
The mystery doesn’t end there. Rana added, “It was difficult to open the snake venom-filled jar. So we handed the jar over to the Forest Department Office at Balurghat.”
Another BSF officer explained there is a market for snake venom in India and abroad as it is used in traditional Indian and Chinese medicine as well as at rave parties as an aphrodisiac.
Indian Journal of Mental Health also chronicled the growing abuse of snake venom in rave parties for getting stoned. A snake bite costs around ₹2,500, the journal wrote in an academic article published in 2015.
What the BSF stats say
The milking of snakes to collect large volumes of venom is another facet of the cross-border smuggling intriguing even to the BSF personnel. Nine cases of recovery of snake venom from 2017 have been recorded in this sector of the India-Bangladesh border alone, as per the statistics compiled by the BSF.
BSF data indicates that the seized snake venom, with a maximum of three seizures in 2021, is valued at ₹164 crore globally. After 2018, snake venom jars had not been recovered, and smuggling had also slowed due to the Covid pandemic.
Suspect in custody
According to BSF sources, last month, the Forest Department of the State seized more than 2 kg of snake venom, valued at ₹30 crore in the international market, and arrested a person on charges for ferrying it.
The BSF had questioned Mohammad Sarafat and he is said to have told the personnel that he was merely a courier and would get ₹5,000 to ₹10,000 per consignment.
Sarafat disclosed that between 100 to 150 jars were kept in Bangladesh for smuggling into India through the porous West Bengal border. BSF source say he could not throw light on the mystery behind the ‘Made in France’ tag as he had claimed he wasn’t aware of the gang that operates in Bangladesh.
During a forensic examination of a consignment in the past, a BSF officer recalled, the venom sample had traces of three snakes — Cobra, Russel Viper, and Saw Scale Viper — and was also adulterated with a neutral compound.
Investigations on
India’s premier serpentarium, the Haffkine Institute in Mumbai, has examined samples of snake venom seized by law enforcement agencies in the North East, Dr Usha Padmanabhan, Head of Department of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, told businessline.
As the mystery remains uncracked, perhaps the BSF may seek the help of Border Guards Bangladesh to clear the cloud around ‘Made in France’ snake venom.