Gift of life for 'left to die Cobra'
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, May 05: Most people fear snakes, and whether they are poisonous or not, the first instinct on sighting them is to kill.

However, 24-year old Vishal Santra, who regards these crawling creatures as a friend of man, has treated and saved a she-cobra, considered to be one of the most poisonous snakes, after it was beaten up and left to die by some people.

The she-cobra (Mono-cellate cobra) reportedly crawled out from the kitchen garden of the private residential house of IAS officer KK Chhetry at Kanglatongbi at around 5 pm of April 23 and after its head was battered repeatedly by one of the helpers of the IAS officers, the snake was thrown away presuming that it was dead.

The saviour with the reptile which has recovered

On receiving the news that the cobra was left to die after being beaten up, 24-year old Vishal Santra, a grandson of KK Chhetry picked up the injured cobra and provided proper treatment.

At the time of picking up the 4 ft and 2 inch long cobra, the head of the snake was damaged badly, one of the teeth was broken and the tongue was sticking out motionlessly with no more strength to spread out its hood.

Despite this Vishal brought the snake to his house and after giving it a proper wash it was given an injection of 2 mm steroid and the severed mouth was stitched.

Then he kept the snake inside a bucket containing saw dust treated with Betadine.

Vishal even fed the battered she-cobra with snails after opening its mouth along with washing its body with lukewarm water and applying Betadine every day.

Soon, the condition of the cobra improved and it started moving and spreading its hood.

The rescued cobra was today finally handed over to Chief Wild Warden of the Forest and Environment Department AK Rana along with a report on how it was saved and treated.

Talking to The Sangai Express, Vishal, said that the creature will be released in the wilderness after removing the stitches.

A student of MA English Ist year from Rabindra Bharati University, West Bengal, Vishal is currently doing research on snakes under the guidance of Dr KK Banerjee of Presidency College, Kolkata along with working for the Foundation for Wild Life.

While informing that he has special interest in snakes since childhood, Vishal pointed out that 87 percent of the snakes are not poisonous and said snakes are one of the best friends of man.

A team of researchers from the Foundation for Wild Life under which he is working would be coming to Manipur in the month of October this year to conduct a survey and further study on the snake population in the State, he disclosed.