The famed snake catcher of Kerala, Vava Suresh, was called in to Kulathooppuzha in Kollam district to catch the 14-feet snake .Kollam: It was business as usual for Vava Suresh. He did not see it fit to celebrate his latest catch - a king cobra, the 119th king cobra to be bagged by the famed snake catcher of Kerala.
Suresh was called in to Kulathooppuzha in Kollam district around 6:30 pm on Tuesday by local residents scared to their wit's end. They had just spotted a king cobra amid the firewood heaped near a house. Suresh and the forest officers combed the area for the eerie intruder, but in vain.
Suresh received a call next morning. The snake was spotted again. He recovered the 14-feet snake from the pile of firewood. The female snake must be nine years old, he assessed, but it was smaller that the huge king cobra he caught from Thenmala earlier.
Suresh caught a king cobra from Naranathu in Pathanamthitta last month. An earlier catch, in Kottamanpara in Pathanamthitta, was watched by about 10 lakh people on Facebook live. The king weighed 20 kg and stretched 18 feet. It must have been 14 years old. That was the 103rd king cobra Suresh caught in his career. It was later released in the Kakki forest.
King cobras, which can kill a man in five minutes, are forced to venture out of their forest habitats in the scorching summer. They contribute to the majority of deaths by snake bite because an anti-venom is not available.
Suresh regularly warns people against handling king cobras without safety mechanisms.
Read more: Latest Kerala news | CPM MLA calls Devikulam subcollector a 'cheat'
