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An eight-year-old Indian boy killed a cobra that had wrapped itself around its arm and sunk its teeth into its skin by biting it back in an incredible story of survival.
The surreal incident took place in the remote village of Pandarpadh in India’s central Chhattisgarh region on Monday, when Deepak was attacked by the venomous reptile, according to The new Indian Express.
The cobra clung to Deepak as he played outside his childhood home, wrapping his tense body around his limb, before backing off and biting to inject its deadly venom.
Deepak fought through the pain and shook his arm furiously, but couldn’t let go of the reptile. It was then that he decided to give the attacker a taste of his own medicine and sink his own teeth into his body, successfully killing the animal.
“The snake wrapped around my hand and bit me. I was in a lot of pain,” Deepak told The New Indian Express.
‘Because the reptile didn’t move when I tried to shake it off, I bit it hard twice. It all happened in a flash,” he said.
Snakebites are extremely common in India — a new study published last week revealed that more than 85 percent of snakebite deaths recorded in 2019 occurred there.
Deepak, 8, killed a cobra that had wrapped itself around its arm and sunk its teeth into its skin by biting it back in an incredible turnaround of fortunes
Deepak was attacked by a cobra but luckily only suffered a dry bite – the snake did not inject its deadly venom into the boy’s flesh
Fearing for Deepak’s life in the wake of the bite, the boy’s parents rushed him to a nearby medical center where he was kept under observation to make sure he would make a successful recovery.
An examination of his injury led doctors to discover that he had suffered a “dry bite,” meaning the cobra hadn’t released any venom into its flesh.
“Deepak showed no symptoms and recovered quickly thanks to the dry bite when the venomous snake strikes, but no venom is released,” a snake expert told The New Indian Express.
Dry bites are often administered by adult snakes that have complete control over the deployment of venom from their glands.
Snakes use venom to kill their prey or ward off dangerous predators. Dry bites are often delivered when the snake is trying to warn or scare animals, rather than killing them.
The Jashpur district where Deepak had his fight with the cobra is known for its tortuous activity – more than 200 species of snakes live in the region.
A recent study found that of the 63,000 people estimated to have died from snakebites in 2019, 51,000 were killed in India.
Researchers at James Cook University in Queensland say the findings do not believe the World Health Organization’s goal of halving deaths from snakebites by 2030 will be met.
They also pointed to poor access to antivenom in poor, rural areas as one of the main contributing factors to the death toll.
Researchers from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia estimate death rates from snakebites in 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019 (Pictured: Russell’s Viper)
Age-standardized snakebite venomous death rates for both sexes combined in 2019 in 204 countries and territories
Professor Richard Franklin, who led the study, said: ‘Interventions to ensure a faster release of antivenom should be coupled with preventive strategies such as increased education and strengthening the health system in rural areas.
“Securing timely access to antivenom in rural areas of the world would save thousands of lives, and increased investment in designing and scaling these interventions should be a priority to meet WHO’s snakebite poisoning and neglected tropical disease targets.”
For the study, published last month in nature communicationthe researchers collected autopsy and vital registration data from the Global Burden of Disease datasets.
This was used to model the proportion of venomous animal deaths from snakes by location, age, sex, and year.
The results showed that most deaths from snake venom occurred in South Asia – the area from Afghanistan to Sri Lanka, including Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
In India specifically, the death rate was calculated to be four deaths from snakebites for every 100,000 people – much higher than the global average of 0.8.
In India, 90 percent of snakebites come from four species – the krait, Russell’s viper, the sawscaled viper and the Indian cobra (pictured)
The region of sub-Saharan Africa came in second, with Nigeria having the highest number of deaths at 1,460.
Professor Franklin said that after a venomous snake bite occurs, the risk of death increases if the antivenom is not administered within six hours.
In India, 90 percent of snakebites come from four species: the krait, the russell viper, the saw tedder and the Indian cobra.
Antivenom exists for all of these species, but the prevention of death from snakebites depends not only on the existence of antivenom, but also on its spread to rural areas and the ability of the health system to provide care for victims with secondary complications such as neurotoxic respiratory failure or acute kidney injury requiring dialysis,” said Professor Franklin.
While 63,000 deaths is still a lot, this is a 36 percent decrease from the number of deaths in 1990.
However, the researchers predict that the number of deaths is expected to exceed 68,000 by 2050, due to population growth.
“We predict that mortality will continue to fall, but not enough to meet WHO targets,” the researchers wrote in their study.
‘Improved data collection must be prioritized to help interventions in a targeted manner, to better estimate the burden and to monitor progress.’