Manipal: Cobra dies after swallowing knife at poultry farm!

Manipal: Cobra dies after swallowing knife at poultry farm!

Mangalore Today News Network

Manipal, May 14, 2015 : In a bizarre case, a cobra which  swallowed a knife after mistaking it for food lost its life after the knife protruded from its  stomach on the third day.

Recently, a cobra which was spotted trying to kill a hen in a poultry farm in Manipal was shooed away by the  people there. However, the next day the cobra was again spotted in a corner. It looked as if it  had swallowed something.  When attempts to shoo it away failed this time, the locals informed herpetologist Gururaj Sanil.

Sunil who arrived at the spot, after examining the cobra concluded that it might have eaten some hard object  rather than some rat or head of a hen as  thought by locals. Realising that it would be difficult to save the cobra unless it vomited the swallowed object, Gururaj had taken the cobra to his house. The next day Gururaj saw a portion of a knife coming out from the  stomach portion of the cobra. Though Gururaj removed the knife, the cobra died of the injuries.

Later  the poultry farm owner was informed and he  took the knife which was missing from the farm as well as the dead snake  and later performed its last rites.

Gururaj says though snakes have the capacity to spit out any unwanted object they might have swallowed, they however cannot do so in case of hard objects like a knife.