Patna: A man in Bihar landed in hospital after exposing himself to frequent snake bites, a practice he believed would compensate for his liquor addiction.
Bihar has enforced a total ban on the sale, consumption or manufacture of all kinds of alcohol.
Reports said 50-year-old Rana Pateshwar Singh, a resident of Sari village in Samastipur district, was an alcohol addict.
He became restless after the state government imposed prohibition in April last year.
With liquor not available legally, and the state government introducing a harsher law to punish violations of the prohibition, Singh recently bought a king cobra from a local snake charmer and tamed it in his home, according to his family members.
As per the report, the man had kept the cobra in a plastic box with a small perforation, to allow the snake to breathe.
“Whenever he felt restless, he would push his right hand’s thumb inside the box through the whole and got himself bitten by the deadly cobra. He claimed having got intoxication of a full quart of wine in that process. He would do it at an interval of two days,” one of his family members quoted him as having said that.
Last week, however, he suddenly increased his dose and got the snake bit him thrice in a day, leaving him a serious condition.
He was instantly rushed to a local government hospital where the doctors kept a close watch on his condition. He could be saved after the doctors administered him as many as 18 vials of snake bite medicine.
“When he was brought to the hospital his condition was critical. The poison had gathered in every part of his body as he had been getting the snake bites for days. Luckily he could be saved,” Dr Jaykant Paswan who treated the man told the media today. The victim was admitted to the hospital on August 6.
