3 of Delhi family suffer snakebites, mother and 13-year-old daughter succumb

The woman was the first to be bitten, around 4 am, and she immediately raised the alarm, following which the family switched on the light to find a black snake.

A 41-year-old woman and her 13-year-old daughter died of reported snakebites, and an 18-year-old man, a son of the deceased woman, was injured in a reported attack by a venomous snake earlier this week, when the family was sleeping at their home in Triveni Colony of Bakhtawarpur, police said on Saturday.

Police said they received an alert on Wednesday from Satyawadi Raja Harish Chandra (SRHC) Hospital, Narela, regarding the admission of three snakebite victims. (Hindustan Times File)

According to the version of events shared by the police, the woman was the first to be bitten, around 4 am, and she immediately raised the alarm, following which the family switched on the light to find a black snake.

Police said they received an alert on Wednesday from Satyawadi Raja Harish Chandra (SRHC) Hospital, Narela, regarding the admission of three snakebite victims.

What happened

An officer aware of the case, requesting anonymity, said, “Six members of the family, including the woman, her husband, their two sons, a daughter and a relative, were sleeping in the same room. Around 4 am, the woman got woken up and raised an alarm. There was a mark on her hand. The family members switched on the light and saw a black-skinned snake slither behind a pile of clothes.”

The victims were identified as Shafika Pravin, alias Sakina, the mother; Fayaz, the survivor, Aafiya, the 13-year-old victim.

Police said that Aafiya was referred to Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar (BSA) Hospital, Rohini, for further treatment, but succumbed to her injuries within three hours of Sakina’s death.

While the police said they are treating the deaths as accidental ones, experts termed it a rare incident.

What the expert says

Faiyaz Khudsar, incharge scientist of biodiversity parks programme in Delhi, said, “It is rare...Given the available information and circumstances, the incident must be seen analysed from multiple angles to ascertain the reason.”

“There are only three types of venomous snakes seen in Delhi, the cobra, viper and krait. The third kind is extremely rare. It’s black and slim, with intermittent white rings, as explained by police in this case. Krait is venomous but also very slow,” he said.

Triveni Colony is a locality in Delhi’s northern fringe, where open land and vegetation surround several residential pockets. Moreover, during the monsoon, snakes’ underground burrows get flooded, driving them into human settlements in search of dry shelter and food.

Previous fatal snakebite case

The last reported fatal snakebite in Delhi was in August 2024, when a five-year-old died after being bitten by a snake while sleeping inside a shack on the campus of Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in Dilshad Garden.