Haldibari (Assam): A 13-feet long king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) accidentally trapped in a house near Haldibari Reserve Forest in Assam, was ‘rescued’ by the Forest Department authorities assisted by International Fund for Animal Welfare – Wildlife Trust of India (IFAW-WTI) team, last week. The snake has been released in Haldibari.

The team was alerted about the snake by local people. IFAW-WTI veterinarian Dr Anil Deka who assisted in the rescue, said, “We rushed to the house where the snake was trapped as soon as we got the alarm call last Tuesday. When we reached the site, we found the snake coiled under a bed. It took us about two hours to catch the snake.”

The king cobra was brought to the IFAW-WTI run Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) for examination. It was kept under observation and released two nights later in Haldibari RF.

This is the ninth king cobra to have been handled by IFAW-WTI in the northeast since the initiation of their rescue operations in 2002. This included an individual that was confiscated from a snake charmer in Doomdooma, Upper Assam. Five of these snakes were released in the wild following appropriate intervention.

The king cobra is the longest venomous snake in the world and can grow up to a length of over 18-feet. It is also the only snake in the world that builds nests on the ground where it lays its eggs; it guards the nest until the eggs are about to hatch. In India, it is found in the Western Ghats, Orissa, Bengal, Assam in addition to other areas including the Terai landscape.

King cobras predominantly prey on other snakes in the wild. It is believed that their fondness for rat snakes is one of the reasons for their ‘straying’ into human-dominated areas.

An extensive research on ecology, behaviour and habitat of the king cobra is being undertaken at the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS) in the south Indian state of Karnataka. Led by Romulus Whitaker also known as the ‘snake man of India’, ARRS also carries out rescue and rehabilitation, protection of nests and captive breeding for the conservation of the king cobra.