The poisonous cobra died after a young child turned the tables on it.
According to USA Today, the attack happened in India on Monday, October 31, when an eight-year-old boy was attacked by a cobra that could have killed him.
The child, only known as Deepak, was playing in his backyard when he saw the snake. He told The New Indian Express about the scary moment. Deepak is from the remote village of Pandarpadh in the Jashpur district.
The child remembers how the snake bit him after it wrapped itself around his hand. After causing “great pain,” the boy tried to shake the snake off of Deepak’s hand, but it wouldn’t let go.
When that happened, he decided to do what the snake did and “bit it hard twice.”
“It all happened in a flash,” Deepak told the newspaper. He was then rushed to a nearby health care center, where he was given a shot of anti-snake venom.
His doctor, Dr. Jems Minj, told the outlet that the boy was watched for the whole day and then sent home when he showed no signs of illness.
Dr. Minj said that the boy’s “quick recovery” was because the cobra had given him a “dry bite.” This is when a snake breaks the skin of its victim with its fangs, but no poison comes out. Because of this, only the bite site will hurt and show signs of illness.
The Independent says that the snake later died because of its wounds.
The remote village of Pandarpadh is about 350 kilometers northeast of Raipur, the state capital.
Wildlife SOS says that there are almost 3,400 species of snakes in the world and that nearly 300 of those species live in India.
Over 60 of these nearly 300 species are poisonous, and another 40 or so are “mildly poisonous.”
Cobras are members of the Elapidae family of snakes, and their neck flaps make them easy to spot.
The Indian cobra, which is also called the “spectacled cobra,” can grow to be between 3 and 5 feet long. Other types of cobras that live in the country include the King Cobra, the Andaman Cobra, the Caspian Cobra, and the Indian Spitting Cobra.
WalkThroughIndia.com says that “the cobra snake of India is one of the big four highly poisonous snake species and is responsible for most snakebites on humans in India.”
