Videos of snake catchers often go viral on social media, for these people do a job that most others would shudder at. More often than not, these rescuers leave us stunned with the ease with which they capture potentially-dangerous serpents, but even seasoned snake catchers have a few unpleasant surprises at times. Recently, one in Karnataka narrowly avoided getting attacked by a hostile king cobra in a video that has now gone viral online.
The footage shows the snake catcher trying to rescue a snake from a bathroom. ETV Bharat identified him as snake expert Ashok from Belthangady, located in the Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka. The area has a sizeable population of snakes.
In the footage, only the tail of the 14-foot king cobra is visible initially, peeking out of the bathroom's doorway. The snake catcher bends down to grip the tail and begins pulling it towards himself. However, he is forced to jump back in horror when the snake, a venomous king cobra, suddenly rears its head and jumps out, ready to strike.
Luckily, Ashok managed to avoid getting attacked by the snake, retreating just in time.
Sharing the video on Twitter, Indian Forest Service officer Parveen Kaswan cited it as an example of "How not to rescue a snake. Especially if it's a king cobra."
The video has been viewed more than 60,000 times since being shared on the microblogging platform this morning.
While many Twitter users in the comments section said the snake rescuer had a lucky break, others found humour in the situation and imagined the snake's thought process too.
According to ETV Bharat, the video was filmed in late August, after a man named Gopalakrishna Bhat found the king cobra in his bathroom. The snake was eventually rescued and released into a forest.
