An infant in the northern Indian state of Bihar reportedly bit a cobra to death after it coiled around his hands.
The one-year-old boy, identified only by his first name Govinda, bit the cobra while he was playing at his home in the small town of Bettiah near the Indo-Nepal border, according to local news reports.
“When we saw the snake in the child’s hand, everyone rushed towards him, but in the meantime, he already bit the snake, killing it on the spot,” the child’s grandmother told local news.
After biting the snake, the boy fainted and was rushed to a primary health care centre for initial treatment, after which he was taken to the town’s Government Medical College Hospital (GMCH).
“The boy, Govind Kumar, was referred here yesterday by the primary health centre close to his village where he was rushed by family members after he fainted soon after chewing on the live snake,” hospital superintendent Duvakant Mishra told Indian Express.
The venom’s effects were reportedly mild, only knocking the boy unconscious, but not fatal.
“Timely treatment saved Govinda’s life,” Saurabh Kumar, a doctor of the government hospital, told the Times of India.
“The child’s condition is currently stable and treatment is being administered under the supervision of doctors. The medical team is treating the child, providing continuous medication, and he is under observation,” Dr Kumar said.
Govinda reportedly is being closely monitored at GMCH Bettiah with treatment for poisoning expected to start if he started showing any symptoms, according to local news reports.
India has around 300 species of snakes, including 60 highly venomous snakes such as the Russell’s vipers, kraits, and the saw-scaled viper, which are responsible for most of the bite-related deaths.
The Indian cobra completes this list of the “big four” species responsible for the most snakebites in India.
The country recorded over a million snake bite deaths in just two decades from 2000-19, according to a study published in 2020 in the journal eLife.
More than two-thirds of the recorded deaths came from eight of India’s 28 states, including Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.
