Bantwal: 13-feet long King Cobra rescued, released at Reserve Forest, Shiradi

Pics by Nityaprakash Bantwal
Bellevision Media Network

Bantwal, 09 Aug 2015: The snake catcher Kiran Pinto Vogga rescued a 13-feet long king cobra that was found nearby the residence of DK district Congress leader K Harikrishna Bantwal, residing at Kayarmar in Amtady village, near here on Saturday August 8 and released at the Reserve Forest, Shiradi Ghat.

 

‘The king cobra of such length was first time found in Bantwal taluk,’ said Bantwal range forest officer Subramanya Rao and assistant forest officer Sitaram Shetty.

 

The urban areas are not fit for reptiles because the surroundings don’t sustain them. Besides, king cobras resemble rat snakes and are generally ignored.

 

 

Anyone bitten by king cobra will not live over 2 minutes. An elephant bitten by king cobra can last for not more than 20 minutes. India lacks effective medication for cobra bites, say the forest officers.

 

The king cobra was found by the locals at Kayarmar, near here whilst it was feasting on a rat snake in the plantation of nearby house belonged to Harikrishna. The locals took notice because of the sheer size, but they did not identified as a king cobra.

 

Meanwhile, Kiran Pinto who has the hobby of rescuing reptiles was successful in catching the king cobra of that length without using any accessories. He struggled for nearly 2-hour to hold grip on the king cobra and seized on its tail and wooed to move in a sack. He secured the opening of the sack when it’s fully inside it.

 

There were 2 options to release the king cobra at Pilikula Nisargadhama in Mangaluru, which was shelved because there are many such stock there.

 

At last, it was taken to Reserve Forest at Shiradi ghat and released there in the presence of forest guard Shivalingaswamy.