Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): In a major jolt, the King Cobra snake died a mysterious death at Van Vihar National Park during the early morning hours of Wednesday. The forest officials are waiting for the post-mortem report to know the actual reasons behind the King Cobra’s death. Its death is a big setback to the state government’s plan of rehabilitating the King Cobra in the state.
Van Vihar Director Vijay Kumar told The Free Press that so far, nothing is known about how the King Cobra died. Its movement was good inside the enclosure. It died a sudden death. It had no external injury. Notably, this King Cobra was five years old and was named “Nagarjun.”
It was on April 6 that two male King Cobras were brought to Van Vihar from Pilikula Biological Park, Mangalore (Karnataka) under the animal exchange programme. One of them was named “Nagshayna” and was eight years old. The other King Cobra (5 years) was named “Nagarjun.”
It was in May that “Nagshayna” was taken to Indore Zoo, where there is already a female King Cobra. Since then, “Nagarjun” was living a solitary life at Van Vihar. Its activities inside the enclosure were being watched with the help of CCTV cameras. When forest officials saw no movement of Nagarjun during the early morning hours of Wednesday, they went inside the enclosure and found him dead.
The death of King Cobra Nagarjun has come as a huge blow to the ambitious programme of reintroducing King Cobra into Madhya Pradesh. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has shown great interest in bringing King Cobra snakes.
Wildlife Expert Ajay Dubey said that the bringing of two male King Cobra snakes in exchange for a tiger and tigress was a gross violation of Central Zoo Authority’s norms.
Normally, under the animal exchange programme, male and female animals are brought, and possibly for the first time, two male King Cobras were brought under any such programme.
He asserted that in Karnataka, the male King Cobra which died in Van Vihar was kept along with a female King Cobra. He alleged that Van Vihar lacked expert persons to handle the King Cobra. He demanded that accountability should be fixed in the case.
