LUCKNOW: In a bizarre incident, a man in UP’s Hardoi bit off a snake’s head and chewed it before spitting it out. The man, Sonelal, claimed that he did it for revenge as the snake had bitten him.
He fell unconscious and was rushed to a community health centre. The doctor, however, could not find any bite marks on him.
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The state-run 108 ambulance service at Moghaganj community health centre (CHC) received a call on Saturday to rush to Shuklapur Bhagar village where a farmer had fallen unconscious. Sonelal was brought to the CHC at 7 pm where emergency medical officer Dr Mahendra Verma and pharmacist Hitesh Kumar attended to him. “His neighbours Ram Sewak and Ram Swaroop claimed that Sonelal had been bitten by a snake. So, we started looking for bite marks but could not find any,” said Hitesh.

“His nephew Nanhe said Sonelal was alone when the incident took place but someone told him that a snake had bitten him. We administered emergency medicines and kept him under observation,” Hitesh told TOI.

Sonelal regained consciousness by 10 pm and was asked to elaborate the sequence of events. “He claimed that he was grazing his cattle when a snake bit him. He said that he picked up the snake in anger and bit off its head and chewed it before spitting it out,” said the pharmacist.

“It appears that the snake had not bitten him at all. We did not find any snake bite marks on his body. He turned unconscious because of consuming the snake’s body part which could have contained venom assuming that it was a poisonous snake,” said Dr Verma.

Sonelal was addicted to drugs, say locals

As the news about the incident spread, curious visitors swarmed the CHC. Mukesh Gupta, a local shopkeeper, said: “I could not believe my ears... I wondered how can someone bite a snake. I saw photos of Sonelal and the snake taken by ambulance staff.”