In India and Nepal, where authorities say a handful of the 92 people killed by this year's monsoon died from snake bites, there is even a special holiday to worship the serpents.
Some Buddhist legends have also incorporated snakes, such as the tale of the giant cobra that used its hood to shield Buddha from the sun as he mediated in the desert.
There are no hard figures for the exact density of snakes on the subcontinent, but anecdotal evidence suggest it's high. Whitaker said the tribal hunters he works with can pull two or three cobras from a 5-acre rice paddy in a day.
"That's a lot of snakes from a small patch," he said.
The reason there are so many is the small farms that still cover much of rural India provide the perfect habitat for snakes' prey, such as rats or frogs.
The good news is that it usually takes hours or sometimes days for a snake bite to kill.
But that is little comfort to the many people who have to walk for days to get to hospitals.
RSS