Snake remains hidden inside victim’s clothes until cremation

 Snake remains hidden inside victim’s clothes until cremation 

‘THE LURKER’ Manoj.Chaurasia@timesofindia.com 

Patna : In a bizarre case, a deadly snake, believed to be a Russell’s Viper, remained hidden inside the clothes of a man in Bihar’s Begusarai for nearly 16 hours after biting him, eventually leading to his death. The snake was only discovered when the body was laid on the funeral pyre and lit by the man’s 10-year-old son.

 Dharmveer Yadav was collecting fodder Thursday in Cheria-Bariyarpur’s Kumbhi village when he was bitten and collapsed. Noticing telltale signs of snakebite like frothing at the mouth of the 41-year-old, his relatives initially rushed him to local exorcists for venom removal. When Yadav’s condition worsened, he was rushed to a local hospital when he died on the way. All this while, the snake lay coiled beneath his clothes. On Friday, as Yadav’s body was being cremated, the snake finally emerged when the pyre was lit by his son Shiv Shankar.

 The villagers then beat the snake to death. Russell’s Viper, named after Scottish herpetologist Patrick Russell (1726-1805), is known for its tendency to stay hidden, a trait reflected in its genus name derived from a Hindi word meaning “the lurker”.