Deadly Cobra Attacks, Meets Its Match as Boy Bites Back

In an unusual turn of events, a 12-year-old boy in India bit a cobra to death after being bitten himself by the deadly snake. The boy was rushed to a local health center, where he received antivenom for the bite, and has been discharged.

Deepak Ram said that he was playing in his backyard when the snake attacked him. "The snake got wrapped around my hand and bit me," he told local media. "I was in great pain. As the reptile didn't budge when I tried to shake it off, I bit it hard twice."

The bizarre incident took place in Jashpur District in the state of Chhattisgarh, known locally as Naglok—or realm of serpents—because of the abundance of snakes in the area.

Over 60 of the nearly 300 snake species that live in India are venomous. Between 2000 and 2019, the World Health Organization estimates, snakebites killed over 1.2 million people in India, more than in any other nation.

"The Indian spectacled cobra—Naja naja—is one of the leading causes of snakebite morbidity and fatality in South Asia," Timothy Jackson, a toxicologist from the Australian Venom Research Unit at the University of Melbourne, told Newsweek.

"Cobra venoms are diverse, but the most prevalent and perhaps most clinically important toxins are neurotoxins and cytotoxins," he continued.

"That is, toxins which interfere with the nervous system—for example by preventing cell signaling—and toxins which destroy cells. As a result, the consequence of cobra envenoming most likely to result in death is neurotoxicity—paralysis.

"Cobra venoms may also cause horrendous tissue damage due to the presence of cytotoxins," the toxicologist said.

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