Rs 5000 on head of snake that bit boy

Lucknow: A farmer in Shahjahanpur has announced a reward of Rs 5,000 on the head of a snake that has bit his son four times in the past two years.

Surendra Kumar, 45, claimed that the same snake bit his son Brijbhan, 21, four times, after the latter killed the snake’s mate. Mr Kumar has even posted two armed men at his house in Khiriya village to guard his son.

A number of snake charmers, lured by the prize money are thronging the house.

“Brijbhan had killed a snake when two snakes were mating in October 2015,” Mr Kumar told reporters.

He said that his son survived the snake bites mainly because the snake was reportedly non-venomous.

“But we cannot live in this fear, all the time. I take my son to a local snake charmer whenever he is bitten. The snake charmer has failed to capture the snake who appears and then disappears suddenly,”0 the worried father said.

The family has consulted local pundits and has planted herbs all around the house to keep the snake away but the remedy is apparently not working.

Mr Yadav, a veterinarian at the Lucknow zoo, meanwhile, said, “Cases of snake bite rise rapidly during the monsoon when the snakes venture out of their burrows. Repeated snake bites, in this case, are a coincidence and the snake is harmless as it apparently belongs to a non-poisonous variety.”

Wildlife expert and retired sub-divisional forest official N.K. Upadhyaya said, “One of the easy ways to differentiate between poisonous and non-poisonous varieties is to observe the tail. The poisonous ones have pointed tails. In India, there are several varieties of snakes but most of these are non-venomous. Often people exaggerate their experiences and believe they have been bitten by a venomous snake. A snake taking revenge is completely illogical and only part of mythological tales.”