One-year-old swallows snakelet, survives

Bareilly : In a shocking incident, a one-year-old boy accidentally swallowed a snakelet while playing in the courtyard of his house in Bholapur village of Fatehganj area in Bareilly district on Saturday evening.

According to reports, the boy bit the snakelet and had partially swallowed it when his mother saw an object in his mouth.

As she pulled it out, she was shocked to find that it was a snakelet.

The boy was immediately rushed the boy to a hospital, where he has been kept observation.

Dharampal, a farmer and the father of the boy, also took the six-inch long dead snakelet with him to the hospital.

Medical officer Harish Chandra said that an anti-venom injection was administered to the boy and he was admitted to the emergency ward.

According to doctors, it was a krait hatchling, which is extremely poisonous, but the child is out of danger due to the timely treatment.

Dharampal told reporters, "My wife Somwati saw something squirming in Devendra's mouth and when she took it out, she screamed with fear as it was a small snake that died soon."

Senior IFS (Indian Forest Service) officer Ramesh Pandey said that "Krait hatchlings and common wolf snake often look similar and differentiating them is extremely difficult because their skin patterns are almost the same. Krait hatchlings can claim human life, but wolf snakes are not lethal. There is no harm in administering anti-venom to the boy, as it does not have any side effect."