I looked around and saw that there were many small holes on the short wall for air and assumed that the snake must have entered in the hut from one of these holes. The hut was near an irrigation canal and the snake must have come from this to the hut as the distance is hardly 40-50 feet. They also said that they saw the snakes in past few days in the irrigation canal. I tried to bag the snake with the help of the equipment that I made but the angry and disturbed snake was not ready to go in the PVC pipe. It was quite difficult also due to small and dark hut. A disturbed King Cobra which is around 10 feet with an attacking range of 3 feet is not easy to handle in such a small hut. After several unsuccessful attempts I decided to get the snake out of the hut in open area. It was not difficult to bring the snake out from the hut and it came out easily. The moment the king cobra came out it started running fast to another house nearby. I went with a big log and lift it in the air so that it cannot enter another house. In this whole episode the snake became angrier and tried to attack more aggressively. I asked for a big basket which I got immediately and then with the help of the log allowed the snake to go under it.

The snake felt relaxed under the basket in dark as it was not moving. After this I asked to bring 3-4 bucket water and poured it over the basket to make the snake calm. Luckily I got some cold water also which helped further to make it calm. The next thing was to bag the snake in a sac which was with me after a little delay. But this was good as the snake was resting under the basket during this time delay. I asked one of the courageous guys to hold the wide open sack with the help of a long bamboo. I lifted the basket with the help of the log and saw that the snake was calm now. I removed the basket completely and asked the fellow to hold the sack. Now the snake was also cooperating with us and was not moving much. I lifted the king cobra with the log high in the air and moved it into the open sack. The snake went in without much effort and we tied the mouth of the sack with the help of a rope. The snake was safely bagged and everybody around was relaxed. By this time forest staff was also there and I asked them where to release the snake. I was told that the snake has to be released in the Dhikala zone of Park.

Since the place was a bit far and we had to go in a vehicle to the point of release I asked for a bucket with half filled with water so that I can keep the snake in it to keep it cool during the time of transfer. We took the snake to a place called Sajgadi Sot (stream) as this is a kind of habitat which king cobra likes. We released the snake a little far from the road where there was some water. Just after the release it went fast towards the water.

This is the third incident where a king cobra entered a human settlement in last five years and luckily this was also rescued and released safely back into their natural habitat. What good thing I have observed in such cases people are more aware now about snakes and instead of killing snakes they call for help and report it to forest department or other people about this.

Though the habitat these snakes live is normally far from humans but there have been some cases in the recent years where the king was found close to humans. I remember two incidents where I had a close encounter with this mighty snake. First it was in the month of October 2004 and second was April 2009. In both cases the king entered human habited areas. These incidents took place in village Dhikuli which is situated next to Corbett Park and on the other side it has Kosi River which divides it from Ramnagar Forest Division. Having in between these two perfect habitats many times the villagers come across wild animals and keep sighting small and big game. But it happens seldom that they come across the King Cobra.

In the first incident I got information in the morning hours of 7^th October 2004 by one of the villager that a snake has entered into the mango tree next to their house and most probably it is cobra. I left to the site with my friend Murray Lewis immediately. We saw the snake and were surprised to see that it was not a common one but a King Cobra and what surprised me was that the people were not taking the snake seriously. There were about 50 people around, the majority of them children. I saw that it was about 9 – 10 feet long snake. I removed the children from the area and ask all not to harm the snake. While all this was going on, the Cobra was lying on the top branch of the tree, looking down.

People were trying everything they could do to get the snake down. A few were shaking the tree and a few said that throwing water on the snake would force it to come down, but this was not successful. Suddenly a person lit a few fragrance sticks below the tree and started blowing Sankh (all due to religious beliefs as snakes are worshipped in Hindu religion) but that too failed. The next thing we did was to make a hook like structure to help us to get the snake down, hopefully without injuring it. At one point we almost managed to get it down but at the last moment the hook broke and the snake again went up into the tree. The problem here was that all the trees were connected with each other and there were houses around them. The cobra was able to move from tree to tree.

Finally, after the exhausting task of more then 2 hours, we managed to pull the snake down with the help of the hook, hopefully without injuring it. As soon as the snake landed on the ground it went into a small drainpipe, one end of which was closed with wire mesh. Now, the next challenge was to get the snake out of the drain! We removed the wire mesh but Cobra refused to come out. We put a sack on one end and tried to smoke the snake out, but still it remained in the pipe. Finally we poured water down the pipe and the Cobra came out. Now it was a challenge to drive the snake into an area, which would be safer for both humans and the snake. We decided to catch the snake and release it in the forest. I held the tail of the cobra keeping in mind how fatal the bite could be for me.  We droved the snake into the canal, which was luckily dry. Now it was easy to catch it. While the snake had been in the drainpipe, Murray had prepared a tool to hold the snake with the help of a stick and some wire. I asked for a sack and with the help of the tool managed to direct the snake into the sack. As the Cobra entered the sack, I jumped into the canal and closed the mouth of the sack and pushed the sake into the sack as quickly as I could have done. Once the cobra was inside, I tied the mouth of the sack with some rope. 

After a long battle between us we managed to get the deadly animal in control without any casualty to him as well as ourselves, about which I was worried from the starting. We took the snake to the office and estimated that it weighed around 5.5 Kg. Now this was time to release the innocent creature into its natural habitat. We released the Cobra in the forest and thanked him for his “cooperation” in the safe catch and release operation. (Later I was told by one of the leading snake expert not to take such risk with King Cobra in future without proper equipment as it could be dangerous)

The second incident is of 15^th April 2009 where one fellow villager called me that a big snake has entered in a hut. I must say that the laymen is also able to identify snake as they told me that it is also a Cobra (or it could be just a wild guess as most of the people call every black snake a cobra). I arrived at the spot and was amazed to see the crowd outside the hut and majority of which was children and women. It was a small hut used by the owner as kitchen with only one entrance and two small windows like holes. They tried every bit to drive the snake out but the poor fellow was caged in the hut with single entrance and was scared more than angry.

Here also the challenge was to handle the crowd more than the snake. I went in the small hut and was more amazed to see the snake – yes it was a king cobra and was about 16 – 17 feet long snake. The main problem was here that the hut was dark and there was hardly much space to handle such a large snake. Well after a hard work and that too without proper equipment I managed to bring out the snake out of the hut and the poor fellow was also relieved and took no time to disappear into it’s natural home.

These are two cases which increased my interests as well as passion about these reptiles. I learnt that they are one of the most innocent creature on nature and never harm us if we leave them to live in their own habitat. I had some more encounters with venomous as well as non venomous snakes and trust me they never tried to bite me.

In this time of rising Man-animal conflict it is hard to see a way that these magnificent creatures will find a way to survive, it is surely only with local support and their respect of the wildlife that my grand children may visit here and experience what I have been privileged enough to.

Snakes have always held that ‘Fear” factor in man, just the mere mention of the word “Snake” can drive masses into panic, in India in particular there reputation as man Killers holds some truth to it with many thousands of people a year losing their lives to snake bites. It is therefore, understandable if the villagers here would first look to kill snakes out of self preservation.

However, yesterday when a snake entered a lady’s room and decided to rest there, no ones first thought was to kill the snake instead they reached for the phone in search of help to remove this snake so that it could carry on with its life in the jungle.  The snake in question was no ordinary snake either it was the King of Kings the King Cobra.  A snake so large and with such a fearsome reputation it would have been no surprise if the immediate reaction was to kill it out of self preservation.  Instead their reaction of reaching out for help to preserve this magnificent and rare snake is the first sign of conservation and a huge encouragement that the wildlife in this area will be saved.

Sanjay Chhimwal a renowned naturalist of the area stepped forward to rescue the King and although there was a lot of excitement and fear amongst the by standers, typified by many of them scurrying for safety atop the nearby roof, to look into their eyes was where the real hope lay, there was no malice no intention to kill this lost soul, only a fascination and awe of this hugely impressive King and all bar none gave it the respect it so richly deserves.

For me the most pleasing aspect of this whole episode was to see the amount of people who I had originally involved in the snake conservation project that I started last year.  Many of them like Hem Bahuguna, Khalidatt Kargetti, came from Ramnagar to lend their support, Sumantha Ghosh dropped everything to rush over and lend a hand, and looking around at the faces of people I now call friends it was easy to see that any of them if wouldn’t have hesitated in rescuing the snake.

When it finally freed from its confines to the nearby river the joyous hand and back slapping typified everyone’s wish to see the King back in the Wild where he belongs.

I can only hope that this sort of reaction will be long lasting and will lead to conservation of all species in the area because India without the Majestic and Mystifying Creatures that roam it is just another country and India so much more than that.