E-Paper
Uttarakhand King Cobra sighting sparks panic among locals, rescued | Video
In Uttarakhand, a giant king cobra was spotted in Bhauwala village leading to a chaos among the villagers. The snake was eventually rescued by forest officials.
A giant King Cobra was spotted coiled along a wall of a house in Uttarakhand's Dehradun causing panic among residents .
A video of the frightening incident went viral on X, that fueled terror in Bhauwala village, after which locals alerted the forest department.
The incident that occurred in Uttarkhand's Jhajra range, drew large crowds, who poured in to watch the massive reptile.
A video of the dramatic capture made multiple rounds across social media, with netizens reacting with a shock.
In the video clip, several men were seen trying to pull the cobra down from a tree adjacent to the wall. The snake pounced back at the rescuers several times. With its hood raised, the reptile scared it spectators.
“As soon as we began the operation, the cobra turned defensive and attacked several times. It even lunged at one of our workers, but fortunately no harm was done,” India Today quoted range officer Sonal Paneru as speaking, adding that the forest team responded promptly after receiving the call.
After a lengthy try, rescuers managed to secure the fierce reptile in a sack despite limited equipment and difficult conditions. The snake was later reportedly released safely in the forest.
No injuries were reported, though the dramatic rescue left many villagers shaken.
In another case of cobra recovery, beat forest officer G S Roshni, who has rescued over 800 venomous and non-poisonous snakes in her nearly eight-year-long career in the Kerala Forest Department, took only a few minutes to bag a 14-15 feet long king cobra from a stream near Peppara, earlier in July.
Roshni was part of a five-member Rapid Response Team (RRT) which reached the forest-fringe area of Anchumaruthumoodu to rescue the snake after locals found the reptile near the stream where many go to bathe.
The visuals of the rescue on TV channels showed how the officer on her own, carrying a long stick with a curve on one end and long bag, caught hold of the snake's tail and then coaxed it into the bag -- all in six minutes.
At one point, she could be heard saying "please" to the snake as she kept the mouth of the bag open in front of it, but it refused to cooperate and tried to slither away. After a few such attempts, she bagged the snake which weighed around 20 kilograms.
"It was a mature snake. It was about 14-15 feet long and weighed approximately 20 kgs," PTI quoted her as saying, adding that king cobras are rarely seen in the southern Kerala district.
