Bhubaneswar: Chita Ranjan Baral did not realise that he was sitting on a snake holed up in his car. He was about to ignite the engine when a man standing nearby screamed at him that a snake is dangling under his vehicle.
Chita jumped out of the car after quickly shutting its door. He then bent forward only to find that it was a rat snake stuck in the car’s chassis. He tried to drive the serpent away by clapping. But it didn’t work.
Baral then called the Snake Helpline for help.
A two-member team from Snake Helpline reached the spot and identified the snake as non-venomous Indian rat snake. The car was lifted with the help of a jack. Even after an hour’s ordeal, the trapped snake could not wriggle itself out. Then Subhendu Mallik, General Secretary of Snake Helpline joined them and advised the rescuers to use coconut oil to lubricate the iron pipe before gently pulling it out. While volunteer Ashis Behera held the Snake by its head, co-volunteer Rajesh Sutar slept on the ground under the vehicle and gently pulled it out of the pipe. The snake came out of the pipe within five minutes. The entire rescue process, however, took three hours.
During the rescue, Rajesh incurred a bleeding cut on the right of his forehead. “While I was rescuing the snake it hurled its hood at me. Panicked by its threat, I pulled back my head but in the process I hit myself hard on the chassis edge. I am happy now that we could rescue the snake,” says Rajesh with a sense of relief.
“The snake, though non-venomous, was trapped in a very awkward position as the rescue condition was indeed hazardous,” adds Subhendu Mallik.
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