Painstaking rescue of cobra trapped in iron pipe

Volunteers battled for over three hours to rescue a 4ft-long cobra from an iron pipe in India.

The cobra had entered the 6ft-long narrow pipe used at a construction site and tried to come out of a hole at the other end.

As the hole was too small, the snake was unable to slither through.

A few workers saw the cobra partially hanging outside the pipe and called the local snake helpline.

The incident occurred in Bhubaneswar in the eastern state of Odisha on November 22.

Members of the animal welfare organisation took the pipe with the trapped cobra to the Veterinary Department of Odisha Agricultural University, where Dr Indramani Nath advised them to cut the pipe to free the snake.

Subhendu Mallik, general secretary of Snake Helpline, managed to persuade the cobra to put its head into a plastic pipe, thus making it safer for other members to get it out.

Two volunteers, Asis and Lalit, cut around the iron pipe carefully with a saw for two hours and then forced it open by pressing it against the railing of the window.

The cobra was then gently pulled out of the pipe.

The snake remarkably survived its ordeal in good shape and was later released into a nearby forest.