A poisonous snake bit a villager; he caught the reptile and furiously sank his teeth into its flesh. The snake died instantly, the man perished 12 hours later.
The astonishing incident happened at Bariyatu village in Jharkhand’s Latehar district after Thursday midnight when 50-year-old Ranthu Oraon was awakened by noise in the neighbourhood over a poisonous snake.
One of his neighbours was crying for help. “He swiftly entered the neighbour’s home and came out with the snake in his hands,” said Parasu, a relative.
“Suddenly, he started biting the snake. The battered and bitten snake died instantly.”
Moments later, Oraon’s family and fellow villagers became aware that he was bitten too when he went into the neighbour’s home to catch it.
Slowly the poison took effect and he was taken to Carmel Asha Kendra, a hospital that specialises in treating snakebite cases in Latehar, where he died on Friday.
Snakebite victims biting back the reptile is not uncommon in Jharkhand as people in the tribal villages believe eating the snake after being bitten helps wear off the poison.