A woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba woke up to horror as she found a King Cobra coiled around her leg. The woman sat still for over three hours praying to God before the snake decided to leave on its own.
Mithlesh Yadav, who was at her maternal home in Daharra village, woke up feeling an unusual grip on one of her legs on Monday morning. Mithlesh said she was terrified when she saw the snake coiled around her leg but maintained her composure as she joined her hands and prayed for it to leave her unharmed.
“I was sleeping with my two children, and when I woke up, I saw the snake wrapped around my leg. I asked my mother to take the children away and waited for hours for it to leave,” she said during an interview with India Today.
Asked what was going on in her mind for those three hours, Mithlesh said she was praying to Lord Shiva, the Hindu deity known to be fond of snakes. “All the while I was praying to Bholenath (Lord Shiva), asking him to leave just as he came,” Mithlesh said, symbolizing the snake with the deity.
“For a moment, I thought I would not survive. I thought about my children and who would look after them if I die. I was praying continuously. My family also started praying for my well-being,” Mithlesh added. She said people from the neighbourhood also joined the prayers as her family performed religious rituals for her well-being in the house.
The family also sought help from the police. Officials arrived at the scene and got in touch with a local snake charmer. To everyone’s surprise, the King Cobra — known as the world’s longest venomous snake — started uncoiling itself from the woman’s leg and left the house before the snake charmer arrived.
As it went outside the house without harming anyone, the snake charmer captured it and released it in a forest away from human habitation.
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This article was first published by India Today on 29 August 2023. Lead Image: King Cobra is the longest venomous snake in the world. (Photo: Representative Image).
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