The 'river people' under threat
Climate change Medicine
The ‘river people’ under threat
The islands of the Brahmaputra are remote, unmapped, under threat — and home to 2.5 million people. BBC Future travelled with a visiting hospital boat to see what is at stake.
By Jules Montague
16 May 2018
Monai Doley is telling me how he cures snake bites.
We are standing in a paddy field: scorching sun, cloudless sky. This is the island of Bhekeli 1 in Assam, north-eastern India.
Doley, tall and broad-shouldered, head shaved, tells me the Cal Bikal snake is particularly dangerous. To cure its bite, Doley rinses his mouth with local rice beer (an antiseptic of sorts), ties a tourniquet above the wound, and then puts his mouth to it. “I suck the poison away, spit it out,” he says. Next, he applies a herb paste. The tourniquet stays on for six hours. Afterwards, healthy blood will re-circulate, he says.
Doley learned these skills (not to be attempted at home) as a youngster from visiting fishermen. But snakes were not the only risk he faced.
More:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180516-the-sapori-people-living-on-indias-brahmaputra-islands