COIMBATORE: A 13-foot-long king cobra was rescued from the bushes near MGR Nagar adjacent to Palapatti village near Mettupalayam on Sunday morning and was released inside the Kunukku Madavu reserve forest.
As villagers were taking their cattle for grazing, they noticed the movement of a king cobra on Saturday evening. Thinking that it would move into the bushes, they did not inform the officials. However, as the villagers noticed it again on Sunday morning they informed Sirumugai forest range officer, K Manoj who later sought snake rescuers Shahul Hameed and Kaja Moideen attached to the Wildlife and Nature Conservation Trust (WNCT) help to rescue the snake.
Manoj said that the female snake was three-year-old and was healthy. We have released it inside the Kunukku Madavu reserve forest where the environment is suitable.
Hameed said that they suspect that the cobra was unable to move back into the bushes as it was tired after mating.
He added, "We suspect that the male cobra is also roaming around near Palapatti. However, we could not find it. We checked the health of the female cobra before releasing it into the forest and it was healthy and it weighed seven kilograms.