An unexpected guest suddenly turned up in the middle of a busy road. It was not a car or a VIP but a large cobra, which sat right in the centre of the road with its hood raised and threw the whole area into commotion. Traffic on the road stopped completely for about 30 minutes.

The unusual incident happened on Palace Road in Bengaluru, India, on Tuesday, 7 July. Pedestrians and drivers were startled to see the cobra sitting with its hood raised in the middle of the busy road.

The snake sat completely still, paying no heed to the traffic rules. Rather than harm it, drivers stopped their vehicles and waited.

Video of the incident spread quickly on social media. One user joked that Bengaluru's traffic jams had a new VIP, and that the snake seemed to have sat down with its hood up for a half-hour evening meditation.

Another said Bengaluru had finally found a traffic controller nobody dared to disobey. A third wrote that the cobra had shown how to cause a traffic jam without even owning a BMW.

Local police reached the scene quickly after being told. They moved the snake with great care, unharmed, to a safe place, and traffic resumed normally once it was gone. No person or snake was hurt.

Experts say urbanisation is shrinking wildlife habitats, and changes in the weather often drive snakes from familiar places into residential or unfamiliar areas.

The report drew on India Today.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.