Forest department personnel caught a 16-foot-long king cobra from a farm at Avudaiyarthoppu in Kalakkad near the Western Ghats on Thursday and released it in the forest.
Sources in Kalakkad – Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve’s Kalakkad Division said the forest personnel received information from the workers in the farm that they spotted the king cobra moving around in the mango grove of one Sunil Kumar.
When they tried to take a closer look at the highly venomous reptile, the king cobra reportedly raised its hood to a height of about six feet that made the farmhands run helter-skelter, the sources said.
On the instruction of Elango, Deputy Director of KMTR’s Kalakkad Division, a team of forest personnel, headed by Pugazhenthi, rushed to the spot to rescue the snake, which was atop a mango tree.
After struggling for about 90 minutes, the forest personnel caught the king cobra and released it in Saala Odai area of the KMTR.
“For the first time, we’ve caught a king cobra, which is normally sighted in relatively cool regions, in a farm outside the KMTR,” said Mr. Pugazhenthi.
