Cobra dies after being bitten by boy in India: ‘I bit it hard twice’

A cobra died after an eight-year-old bit the reptile to protect himself when the reptile wrapped itself around his hand, according to a report.The boy, identified by only his first name Deepak, was playing in the backyard of his house on Monday in Jashpur district, in India’s central Chhattisgarh state, when a snake attacked him.The cobra bit the boy and wrapped itself around his hand, said a report by The New Indian Express newspaper.The boy said he bit the snake ‘hard twice’ as he was in great pain.’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,’ Deepak told local media.The boy’s family rushed him to a medical centre following the snake bite.Dr Jems Minj, a medical officer, said the boy was administered ‘anti-snake venom and kept under observation for the entire day and discharged’.According to snake experts, the boy appeared to suffer a dry snake bite, which occurs when a snake doesn’t release any venom with its bite.The incident took place in remote Pandarpadh village, about 350km northeast of state capital Raipur. The snake reportedly died after suffering injuries from the boy’s bite.India is home to 300 species of snakes, including 60 highly venomous snakes. According to a 2020 report by nonprofit scientific journal eLife, India recorded 1.2 million snake bite deaths from 2000-19.Russell’s vipers, kraits and cobras were responsible for most of the deaths.Around 70 per cent of the deaths from snake bites occurred in eight states between 2001 and 2014. These states include Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.