Cobra dies of child bite in Chhattisgarh, after it got wrapped around his hand

RAIPUR:  In a bizarre incident, an eight-year-old boy bit a cobra snake to death after it got wrapped around his hand in remote Pandarpadh village in Jashpur district, about 350 km northeast of Raipur.

Deepak was bitten by a poisonous cobra while he was playing in the backyard of his house.“The snake got wrapped around my hand and bit me. I was in great pain. As the reptile didn’t budge when I tried to shake it off, I bit it hard twice. It all happened in a flash,” he told the local media.

His family rushed him to a nearby primary health centre. “He was quickly administered anti-snake venom and



kept under observation for the entire day and discharged,” said Dr Jems Minj, block medical officer. “Deepak didn’t show any symptoms and recovered fast owing to the dry bite when the poisonous snake strikes but no venom is released. Such snakebites are painful and may show only local symptoms around the area of bite,” explained Qaiser Hussain, snake expert.

Such cases are rare. “I have never come across such an incident in Jashpur district,” said Ramesh Sharma, a senior journalist. Jashpur is a tribal district, which is also known as Naglok (abode of serpents) because it has over 200 species of snakes, he said.