r/interesting 4d ago

NATURE Indian man catching a king cobra

10.8k Upvotes

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u/Kaccha-Kela 4d ago

Some comments are asking, "Is it common in India to handle snakes". Let me tell you, its not. 

These people are called "Sarpa Mitra" (Snake's friend) who are trained how to handle snake and even first aid in case of snake bites. Many people from small rural village get the trainings because snakes coming to houses are common when the land gets dry and hot. 

I have certain cousins who got this training because they work in the field. The training mainly includes how to identify types of snakes and how to rescue these snakes and put them back into the forest or wherever.

Note, they're called "Snake's friends" to sensitize the taboo around snakes, and the process is called "snake rescue" rather than "human rescue."

23

u/Fresh-Length6529 4d ago

Our house itself has had quite a few snake encounters, more than 10 in the last couple of years though 8/10 times the snakes left on their own, so yeah, most of the time Indians do not need to handle snakes.

8

u/Plsdont_Imfedup_6322 4d ago

Buddy, do you stay in the middle of the Amazon?

10

u/Fresh-Length6529 4d ago

😭

We do have a bit of a leafy area near our house but not that much. Our house just somehow always attracts snakes.

5

u/MessageFriendly4035 4d ago

if it's any comfort, we found a massive snake nest in our house during renovations right after lockdown, and we live near a metropolitan city

1

u/ddk2130 3d ago

Snakes are extremely common in some parts of India. Where I grew up my father had given us basic lessons to distinguish the poisonous ones from non poisonous. We needed this knowledge countless number of times simply playing outside as children.