Doctors in Ujjain, in India's Madhya Pradesh state, performed a complex two-hour operation to save a cobra injured during construction work. The snake was hurt on Tuesday night (25 November) during excavation in the Vikram Nagar industrial area.

Where fear of snakes more often leads people to kill or chase them away, this rescue and treatment is being seen as a rare exception.

The snake was badly injured when struck by a JCB machine during digging. With the skin of its head and body torn, the bleeding cobra thrashed about. At first, frightened onlookers threw soil at it, but they then called Rahul and Mukul, known locally as "snake friends".

Rahul and Mukul quickly reached the spot, caught the injured cobra safely and took it to the animal hospital on Udayan Marg. There, chief doctor Mukesh Jain and his assistant officers Ramkanya Gaurav, Ravi Rathore and Prashant examined it and found deep wounds on its head and back, with skin stripped from several parts of its body.

Realising how serious it was, the team arranged special medication, lightly anaesthetised the snake and began the complex operation. After two hours of hard work, the doctors stitched the torn skin and muscle. The cobra's life was saved after a total of 80 stitches.

The cobra is now stable and has been handed back to Rahul and Mukul for post-operative care. It will be released into the wild after two more days of observation.

Source cited: NDTV.

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