15-ft long cobra caught in Karwar

Karwar - 04 July 2011: A 15-foot long king cobra was spotted at the Vailavada village in Karwar taluk on Sunday.

The snake was spotted by Sainath Naik, a resident of the village, when he was fetching water from a overhead tank constructed on top of a hillock in the village.

He immediately rushed back to the village and informed others, who in turn called officers of the forest department. Forest department staff rushed to the spot with Marshall Menezes, a snake catcher. Seeing the crowd, the snake hid itself in a bush and refused to come out, forcing the team to cut the bushes.

After a two-and-a-half hour long struggle, Menezes finally managed to catch the snake with the help of the forest department staff. Menezes recalled that he had last caught a 15-foot long king cobra in 1992-93 and added that he had not spotted such a big snake in the region since then.

source: Deccan Herald