12th June, Saturday, I went to Rajmachi for trekking with my few friends. Trek was unplanned. We were not aware of routes. Rajmachi trek is one of the very simplest treks if we go via Lonawala. But we went via Karjat (Kondivale). From Kondivale we walked approximately 20 minutes and reached the base village (Kondane village).
We started from base at around 8am and it took us 4 hours to reach the top of the fort. We spend some time on fort, had delicious lunch in Rajmachi village and started return journey at around 4pm
While coming back again as we were not aware of correct path, we were going through jungles. When we were just 30 minutes away from base, we got a big blow. One of our friends got bitten by snake on his hand. That moment we were completely blank. Brain just stopped working for a while. We were helpless. We tied his hand with towel and just started running downside, so that we can reach base and get him medical help ASAP. When we reached base, there were no dispensary/hospitals in that village (Kondivale village), so we had to take him to Karjat hospital. We used bikes of villagers and
rickaws, to reach the Karjat government hospital.
It took us 45-50 minutes to reach hospital from the time snake bitten. In that entire journey, our friend was responding well and there were no symptoms of vomiting or headache etc. So we thought that snake was not that poisonous. Doctor asked us to do B.T. C.T. (Kind of blood test) of our friend before started operating on him. Doctor told us that some snake poison start affecting the body after 3 hour, some after 12 hours. So he was put under observation for 18 hours. He had very high pain in hand and there was dark black spot on his hand, where snake had bitten. But he was all right.
By god’s grace, we came home Sunday evening with him safe and sound. But we realized if non poisonous snake can do such damage what about the poisonous one.
We never thoughts such things could ever happen we us. But it happened and helped us to learn few lessons.
So please keep below things in mind
1) Get a guide if you don’t know the route. Especially if it’s through deep jungles.
2) If you have to go through jungle, always wear full sleeve shirts, full pants and most importantly shoes. Wear a cap.
3) Always have a first aid kit.
Thanks & Regards
Amol S PISAL
