B'deshi snake farmer sees bleak future for commercial production

A Bangladeshi expatriate photographer has turned himself into a snake farmer.

And his farm has now a wide variety of snakes.

Abdur Razzak Biswas during his staying in Saudi Arabia watched an American snake farm video and had then planned to have the same on his home in Bangladesh's Patuakhali district, some 204 km south of capital Dhaka.

After a couple of initial years of experiments, he launched his farm in 2008 with a view to extracting and preserving venom to export abroad and sell in local market.

But after about a decade, frustrated Biswas said he earned some money not from selling venom but from exhibiting his farm's videos on Youtube.

"Most likely I was the only person who started farm shortly after the Bangladeshi government's Livestock Department issued a circular on setting up snake farm under private initiative in 2008," he said, adding that the government notice boosted his efforts to go ahead with his unusual and strangest dreams of building snake farm.

He had then invested all of his savings he had working in Saudi Arabia for over a decade for establishing the farm with a big hope to create employment for neighbours who like him seeking fortune abroad. Biswas said he has long been seeking the government approval to make snake products on a commercial basis.

Abdul Jabbar Sikder, director general of the Department of Livestock, told Xinhua Monday that they are looking into the matter.

"We'll discuss with other relevant government departments whether we can allow snake farms to go production on commercial basis."

Sources said the department could not allow yet Biswas to go for production as no related law has been formulated yet in the country.

"It's not easy for us to give him permission until we're convinced that he has expertise and logistics needed for such production," said a Livestock Department official who did not like to be named.