Snake bites man, Man bites back. Both die

An Indian man in Bihar chewed a poisonous snake and killed it in a fit of rage after it bit him.

The man died later as he refused treatment. The incident took place at Madhopur-Dih village in Nalanda district on Sunday evening.

Reports said Rama Mahto, 65, was sitting outside his home on Sunday evening when a deadly krait bit him on his feet. In a fit of rage, he caught the reptile in his hand and began chewing it.

“How dare you! You bit me and now I will bite you. Soon, he began chewing the snake and killed the reptile,” a local village council official Bhushan Prasad quoted the victim as saying before killing the snake.

In the process, however, the snake bit the man on many parts of his face, leaving him severely injured. Reports said his family members tried to rush him to the local hospital for treatment but the man ignored their advice.

The common krait, also known as the blue krait, is a species of highly venomous snake of the genus Bungarus native to the Indian subcontinent. It is a member of the “big four” species, inflicting the most snakebites on humans in Bangladesh and India.

Bihar witnesses around 4,500 deaths from snakebites every year.

The report stated that people living in densely populated low altitude agricultural areas in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Gujarat, suffered 70% of deaths during this period, particularly during the rainy season when encounters between snakes and humans are more frequent at home and outdoors.

Russell’s vipers, kraits and cobras were responsible for most deaths. The remaining deaths were caused by at least 12 other species of snakes, said the study published in the open access eLife and conducted by leading Indian and international experts.