It all sounded like a scene from a Hollywood horror flick, but as Jintu showed his blackened, swollen finger, to TOI, it became clear that it was not some elaborate hoax produced by some mischief-monger, it was some thing that occurred for actual. But the panic it triggered could have been undoubtedly avoided had there been adequate awareness among laymen and mandarins about arachnids.
Jintu spent a day at the Sadiya Civil Hospital after he complained of excruciating pain and nausea. When he returned property, he had more terrifying stories to tell. Terror was still writ significant on his face even two weeks after the incident, but he thanked his stars for being alive. His neighbour,
Purnakanta Buragohain, was not that lucky. He died in the hospital after a spider allegedly bit him.
The events that unfolded in the next couple of days left everyone baffled. Scores of people arrived in the Sadiya civil hospital with spider bites, some even carrying their tormentors to the hospital. Amid all this, another individual, this time a schoolboy, died of an alleged spider bite. And the district administration panicked. They sounded an alert across Tinsukia district and asked folks to keep indoors at night—the time the unknown critters would swarm all over the spot. They talked about fogging the place with DDT to kill the arachnids but couldn’t find any effective resolution. What’s worse: they even let the two bodies to be cremated with no conducting any autopsy. Yet the spider menace continued. None had any answer as to what kind of a spider it was and how it made such a sudden appearance.
Then on Might 22, a team of life scientists from Dibrugarh University and Gauhati University arrived in Sadiya. Led by Dr L R Saikia, head, Department of Life Sciences, Dibrugarh University, the team camped in the trouble spot for two days and nights and collected specimens. “As of now, we can not give a particular name. It really is similar to the tarantula, but it could be a whole new species. There are not any arachnologists in the northeast, so it will take us a although to determine it. But whatever the species, it is a highly aggressive spider. It leaps at anything that comes close. Some of the victims claimed the spider latched onto them after biting. If that is so, it demands to be dealt with meticulously. The chelicerae and fangs of this critter are really powerful but it’s also early to declare it a killer spider. In reality, we are yet to test its venom and find out the toxicity,” says Dr Saikia.