Career
He is known for his missions for saving snakes straying into human inhabited areas in Kerala, India. He is believed to have captured and rescued more than 30,000 straying snakes. He has been bitten 300 times by venomous snakes and bitten more than 3000 times by all types of snakes.
He has been on ventilator thrice and six times in Intensive Care Unit, mainly because he doesn"t use any type of safety equipments.
He is widely known for his conservation activities like rescue and release of endangered species of snakes, preservation of collected eggs till hatching periods and creating awareness among people about snakes and their behavior. He releases his reptile collections into natural habitats at regular intervals of time.
His efforts to capture poisonous snakes from human populated areas and to educate the people about snakes and their behavior is widely acknowledged. Suresh was born into a poor family and resides in Thiruvananthapuram.
Suresh attributes his snake handling skills to his instinctive passion for snakes from childhood at an age of twelve when he captured a baby cobra and kept it hidden in his house to study its behavior.
Since then he began to focus on handling the snakes without injuring the snake or himself and to study their behavior more closely. In recognition of his services to the society, Forest Department and his efforts in conserving various vulnerable species of snakes endemic to the state, Suresh was offered a government job in 2012 by minister K. B. Ganesh Kumar, at the snake park that would be set up at the Kottur forest area near Kattakada in Thiruvananthapuram. But Suresh declined it, saying that he would be unable to help the society the way he wants to if he was employed.
During his long career of conservation activities, he has encountered numerous accidents.
According to ABP Maza, newschannel interview on June 5, 2012, Suresh was kept on ventilator twice and in Intensive Care Unit four times. In all, Suresh has survived more than 300 venomous snake bites.
He was hospitalised in August 2013 for a lethal bite. On 20 June 2015 he is further hospitalized for another cobra bite.
He was selected for his service to the society for many years.
On November 2013 during his visit in Kerala Britain"s Prince Charles express his desire to meet Vava Suresh and a rendezvous arranged in Vazhachal.