Odisha: Cobra Swallows Cough Syrup Bottle, Snake Helpline to the Rescue

Bhubaneswar: Snake Helpline members in Odisha capital Bhubaneswar on Wednesday saved the life of a cobra which was struggling to regurgitate a bottle of cough syrup it swallowed, apparently mistaking it to be a frog.

The incident was reported from Bhubaneswar. A video of the incident was shared by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Wildlife (PCCF) Susanta Nanda on his official X (formerly Twitter).

In his tweet, Nanda wrote, “A Common Cobra swallowed a cough syrup bottle in Bhubaneswar and was struggling to regurgitate it. Volunteers from Snake Helpline gently widened the lower jaw to free the rim of the base of the bottle with great risk and saved a precious life.”

Wildlife warden, Subhendu Mallick said, “Today, we got information about the incident. After reaching the spot, we saw that the cobra was struggling to regurgitate the cough syrup bottle. The cap side of the bottle was inside the Cobra’s jaws. After some assistance, the snake regurgitated the bottle on its own.

According to Mallick, it could have been a judgmental error by the snake for which it swallowed the bottle. The snake was in pain and it had become weak.

“After the bottle was removed, the snake was released into the wild,” Mallick added