Massive King Cobra found inside home in Kottayam's Erumeli
Escaping death by inches, Babu narrowly avoided a king cobra he mistook for a belt. He evacuated his family, allowing specialists to capture the reptile and safely relocate it to deep forests.
Escaping death by inches, Babu narrowly avoided a king cobra he mistook for a belt. He evacuated his family, allowing specialists to capture the reptile and safely relocate it to deep forests.
Escaping death by inches, Babu narrowly avoided a king cobra he mistook for a belt. He evacuated his family, allowing specialists to capture the reptile and safely relocate it to deep forests.
Erumely: It was a matter of inches and seconds between life and death for Babu (Varghese Thomas) of Ponganthanam, Angel Valley, on Tuesday morning.
Spotting what looked like a leather belt lying on the dining room floor near a helmet, he casually leaned down to pick it up. In a flash of horror, he recoiled, the coiled mass suddenly reared up, flared its massive hood, and hissed ferociously.
Babu had mistaken the scaly back of a venomous king cobra for a belt.
Paralyzed with shock for a split second, Babu quickly gathered his wits and jumped back. He immediately evacuated his family to safety, secured the room from the outside, and alerted the Forest Department.
Snake catchers from the Mundakkayam Forest Range Office rushed to the scene. However, recognizing the perils of handling a king cobra of that size, they called in the specialized Rapid Response (RR) Team from Vandampathal. The serpent remained coiled in the same spot until the RR team initiated the capture. Startled by the rescue attempt, the snake slithered into an adjacent bathroom and then darted into a bedroom before officials finally cornered and secured it from beneath a table.
The house borders the forest edge, and officials suspect the reptile ventured indoors through the open front door in the morning. Forest officials V.V. Anilkumar, Deepu, P. Prasannan, A.S. Sudheesh, and N.K. Subhash led the operation.
13 Pythons, a Cobra, and a King Cobra Released into Deep Wilds
The newly captured king cobra, along with an Indian cobra and 13 pythons rescued from human settlements over the past few weeks, were released deep into the forests near the Kakki Dam in Gavi, nearly 50 kilometres away from Angel Valley.
The relocation to the interior forest came in response to longstanding complaints from locals, who alleged that rescued snakes were frequently released in nearby forest outskirts, endangering residential areas. Following demands from residents that a public representative oversee the release, Grama Panchayat member Tom Kalapparambil accompanied the forest team to the reserve forest.
"I survived by a fraction of a second. The moment it hissed and rose right before my eyes, I froze in terror. To this moment, I don’t even remember how I managed to scramble out of that room," said Babu.