Snake Bite
My old friend Dean Nelson filed this piece for The Telegraph from New Dehli, where he now lives and works although it's a very strange story, an Asian version of 'man bites dog' rather than 'dog bites man'.
But what I don't get is how is it possible for a man to bite and kill a deadly snake, one of the most poisonous serpents in the world, yet somehow the krait doesn't manage to sink its fangs into him as well, which it's rather used to doing of course?
Now I'd like to know the answer to that question because I know quite a lot about venomous snakes, so I think I'll drop old 'Deano' a note and ask him to explain how Rai's reactions were so much quicker than the krait.
Man bites and kills venomous snake in central India
Rai Singh feared the snake was about to bite him when he attacked the poisonous creature
File photo: Blue Krait snake, similiar to the one that Rai Singh killed Photo: Alamy
By Dean Nelson, New Delhi - The Telegraph
A man in central India killed a venomous snake by biting it after he saw the blue krait slithering towards him in bed.
Rai Singh, from Chhattisgarh, told a local television channel he feared the venomous blue krait was about to bite him and decided to bite the creature.
“At nine o’clock in the evening while I went to sleep on my bed, I saw a snake and tried to shoo it away with a stick but it attacked me. I bit it”, he told a local television channel.
His neighbour R.S Singh described the incident as “astonishing” and said it was a “miracle that he survived since this snake is highly venomous”.
Kraits are one of the four poisonous snakes which account for the most attacks in India where 50,000 people are killed by venomous bites every year.
The krait is nocturnal and often wriggles into homes at night during the monsoon season to keep dry. Its bites rarely cause pain and often go unnoticed by their victims as they sleep.
They are, however, highly venomous and up to 80 per cent of their victims die after suffering progressive paralysis.
There has been a series of attacks on snakes on the Indian subcontinent in recent years in which they were bitten and killed by people who feared they were the prey.
A gondh tribesman in Madhya Pradesh bit a snake and snapped it in half last year after it bit his hand as he was fishing in a river.
The year before a farmer in Nepal bit to death a cobra which had bitten him as he worked in a rice paddy.
Now, animal rights campaigners are calling for greater understanding of snakes.
According to Pooja Bhale, of the snake rescue and awareness group, the Protecterra Ecological Foundation, most human attacks on snakes are borne of ignorance.
“Snakes are the most misunderstood creatures and often victims of a lack of information and awareness. People react in panic without considering whether the snake is venomous or not”, she said.
They only attack if they feel cornered or threatened, Ms Bhale said.
“If the humans act cautiously and divert their attention, they can save themselves as well as the snakes”, she added.
Rai Singh feared the snake was about to bite him when he attacked the poisonous creature
File photo: Blue Krait snake, similiar to the one that Rai Singh killed Photo: Alamy
By Dean Nelson, New Delhi - The Telegraph
A man in central India killed a venomous snake by biting it after he saw the blue krait slithering towards him in bed.
Rai Singh, from Chhattisgarh, told a local television channel he feared the venomous blue krait was about to bite him and decided to bite the creature.
“At nine o’clock in the evening while I went to sleep on my bed, I saw a snake and tried to shoo it away with a stick but it attacked me. I bit it”, he told a local television channel.
His neighbour R.S Singh described the incident as “astonishing” and said it was a “miracle that he survived since this snake is highly venomous”.
Kraits are one of the four poisonous snakes which account for the most attacks in India where 50,000 people are killed by venomous bites every year.
The krait is nocturnal and often wriggles into homes at night during the monsoon season to keep dry. Its bites rarely cause pain and often go unnoticed by their victims as they sleep.
They are, however, highly venomous and up to 80 per cent of their victims die after suffering progressive paralysis.
There has been a series of attacks on snakes on the Indian subcontinent in recent years in which they were bitten and killed by people who feared they were the prey.
A gondh tribesman in Madhya Pradesh bit a snake and snapped it in half last year after it bit his hand as he was fishing in a river.
The year before a farmer in Nepal bit to death a cobra which had bitten him as he worked in a rice paddy.
Now, animal rights campaigners are calling for greater understanding of snakes.
According to Pooja Bhale, of the snake rescue and awareness group, the Protecterra Ecological Foundation, most human attacks on snakes are borne of ignorance.
“Snakes are the most misunderstood creatures and often victims of a lack of information and awareness. People react in panic without considering whether the snake is venomous or not”, she said.
They only attack if they feel cornered or threatened, Ms Bhale said.
“If the humans act cautiously and divert their attention, they can save themselves as well as the snakes”, she added.
