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The Best Intentions Can Have Unintended Consequences
The Cobra Effect and how to avoid falling prey to it
During the British rule of Colonial India, venomous snakes were causing all kinds of problems in Delhi. Cobras, in particular, were a menace.
Something needed to be done to stop the spread of the Cobras and the British had just the plan. They decided to introduce a few incentives to the local population to speed up the process. For every dead cobra that was brought to the government, a bounty would be awarded.
Initially, this had the desired effect. Large numbers of cobras were killed and handed in, in return for the bounty. However, as time went on, the British started to notice something peculiar.
The number of dead cobras did not decline, they remained stayed the same and even increased over time.
Instead of acting as the British thought they would, the enterprising local population had started to breed cobras to claim the bounty. Once the British became aware of this, they removed the bounty.
This left the Cobra breeders with hundreds of snakes that were now worthless. So what did they do once the policy had changed?
They realised the cobras into the wild exacerbating the original problem the British had tried to…
