A video of a parched King Cobra drinking water from a plastic bottle at Kaiga township in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka has gone viral and has caused a sensation on the social media with the imagination of people running wild.
The video shows one man holding the snake’s tail to prevent it from launching an attack, while another man gives it water. However, even the man holding the water bottle is holding a snake catching stick, just in case things take a bad turn. He can be seen pouring water on the cobra’s head in order to cool it down.
The video, first uploaded on a YouTube channel called Uttara Kannada News, shows a man in khaki from the forest department giving water to the snake. The voiceover in the video says that severe drought prevailing across Karnataka has resulted in the cobra straying into a village and desperately looking for water.
According to sources, the man in the video giving water to the snake is CN Nayka, the Deputy Range Forest Officer of Karwar forest. He had rescued the cobra along with snake expert Raghavendra. However he is surprised that the video has gone viral, and refuted claims of drought in the region. Playing it cool he said that such instances were common during summer months.
He said, “The Kaiga Nuclear Power Plant is located near the forest range. The snake had wandered into the Kaiga Township, located near the plant sometime in the morning. We spotted the King Cobra around 12.30 pm and saw that it was dehydrated due to the extreme heat. Hence, I offered it some water and took it to a rescue centre.”
According to experts, as this is the mating season, cobras wandering around the area is a common occurrence, which happens almost every year.
“Whenever a snake wanders into civilian-populated areas, we first offer it water. There is nothing sensational about it. The Kali River, which runs through the Karwar Forest Range is flush with water and so are the backwaters located near the Kaiga Power Plant. During summer, many different birds and animals come for water including cobras,” Nayka added.
King Cobra or Kalinga in Kannada is the deadliest venomous snake in the world. These reptiles are found in Western Ghats which runs through Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu districts of Karnataka.