Staffers at the Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar (BSA) Hospital morgue in North Rohini got a nasty surprise when a six-feet-long black cobra sneaked inside the cold room, where bodies are preserved for post-mortem examination.
The presence of this uninvited “guest” caused panic among the hospital staff and relatives who were waiting to receive the bodies for last rites. The drama began when the hospital staff spotted the snake inside the room on Monday.
There was sheer pandemonium as the terrified people, including the doctors, left the area in a hurry, only to find the snake still present when they returned on Tuesday. Initially, the scared doctors refused to perform post-mortems, but later, they somehow managed to conduct one autopsy.
The harried hospital administration and the local police is looking for an animal welfare NGO that will take the cobra off their hands. A senior police officer told The Pioneer, that on Monday around 2.45 pm, one of the hospital employees coming out of the mortuary spotted the cobra heading towards the cold room. He raised an alarm and the situation turned chaotic. Some of the panicked people even started to cry and one of them made a call to the police control room (PCR) at 3.10 pm.
“Police personnel from North Rohini police station along with the PCR personnel immediately reached the spot and volunteered to capture the cobra. However, the snake gave them the slip and disappeared from there,” the officer said.
The police personnel thought that the cobra had gone away and they assured the hospital administration of this.
“The snake was spotted inside the cold store room by our staff and we called the police but due to the darkness, they could not locate the black cobra,” Dr Vijay Dhankar, Head of Department (Forensics), BSA Hospital said.
On Tuesday morning, one of the hospital employees again spotted the cobra inside the cold room and raised an alarm. “The police was informed again but they have not come this time. The scared doctors and some employees refused to go inside the cold room, situated in a basement and to perform post mortems,” one of the senior hospital employee said.
The hospital administration has now approached Wild life SOS and informed them about this matter. The hospital authorities think that as there is a garden near the hospital premises, the cobra hides itself and then comes to the cold room of the morgue when the heat becomes unbearable. Apart from this, there are several areas located on the outskirts of the city where snakes are found in plenty.
A resident of Sainik Farms said that the snake did not harm anyone until the reptiles are disturbed. “We hope that the black cobra will be rehabilitated honourably in its natural habitat by the hospital administration,” he added.