[Watch] Pregnant Cobra’s Mouth Glued For Religious Ritual In Odisha Capital

Bhubaneswar: In a shocking incident, unknown miscreants sealed the mouth of a pregnant cobra with synthetic glue as part of a suspected ritual in the Odissha capital.

The matter came to light after the residents of Bank Colony in the city’s Old Town area saw a stranger holding a cobra by its tail and then dumping it, before running away from the spot on Thursday evening.

The residents alerted Snake Helpline. Following this, a volunteer, Arun Kumar Barala, reached the spot and caught the snake.

Barala, however, became suspicious when he noticed that the cobra was unable to open its mouth or expand the hood properly.

He then took the cobra to Snake Helpline office. There, Snake Helpline founder Subhendu Mallik tried to open the snake’s mouth, but failed to do so. They found that the cobra’s mouth was sealed with synthetic glue.

On Friday morning, the cobra was taken to the Veterinary Surgery & Radiology Department of OUAT. Professor Indramani Nath first took an X-ray to rule out bone injury. But, surprisingly the cobra was found to contain eggs in its abdomen.

A team of vets then then successfully removed the glue from the cobra’s mouth by dipping its head in lukewarm water mixed with lemon juice. They then used ear buds dipped in lemon juice to remove the remainder of the glue.

“We used lemon juice because it contains Citric acid that helped to remove the synthetic glue easily. However, the act is a barbaric act because the persons glued the mouth of a cobra with full of eggs inside her abdomen. We have removed all the glue from the snake’s mouth and freed its trachea, which was partially blocked with glue. The cobra immediately started flicking its tongue and has shown remarkable improvement. We will release the snake into wild after one day observation,” said Nath.

Condemning the barbaric act, Mallik said, “This was wilfully done to use the cobra in religious rituals. We strongly condemn this act which a violation of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The Forest department must arrest those involved in such a heinous act.”