This is the stunning moment a cobra struggles to regurgitate a Russell's viper that it had swallowed along with part of a fishing net in eastern India today (May 29).

Padani Sahu of Kanasa area near Puri in Odisha state, had used an abandoned fishing net to fence off his garden. Eyewitnesses said a three-feet-long Russel's viper was first spotted helplessly entangled in the net.

A five-feet long cobra spotted a chance for an easy meal and devoured the trapped viper. But it ended up swallowing a few strings around the viper’s body and also managed to get itself entangled in the net.

Sahu, the farmer, called Snake Helpline for help and a local volunteer, Susant Kumar Behera, was sent to rescue the reptile.

A daring snake rescuer took a pair of cutting pliers to the cobra’s mouth and snipped away the strings that were entangled in its mouth and fangs.

The cobra managed to spit out the viper and was later released in a nearby forest.

Subhendu Mallik, founder of Snake Helpline, said: “If Susant had not removed the strings from the mouth and fangs of the cobra, it could have met with a slow and painful death."

“It’s common for cobra’s to hunt vipers. They have a neurotoxic venom while vipers have hemotoxic venom. Neurotoxins paralyses the nervous system first and this gives the cobra a clear edge vipers,” he said.

This is the stunning moment a cobra struggles to regurgitate a Russell's viper.

As the cobra had swallowed the smaller snake along with pieces of the fishing net which had trapped it, spitting out the victim was not easy.

A daring snake rescuer took a cutting plier to cobra’s mouth and snipped away the strings that were entangled in its mouth and fangs.

The cobra managed to spit out the viper and was later released in a nearby forest.

Padani Sahu of Kanasa area near Puri in eastern India had used an abandoned fishing net to fence off his garden. Eyewitnesses said a three-feet-long viper was first spotted helplessly entangled in the net.

A five-feet long cobra spotted a chance for an easy meal and preyed upon the trapped viper.

But it ended up swallowing a few strings around the viper’s body and also managed to get itself entangled in the net.

Sahu called Snake Helpline for help and a local volunteer, Susant Kumar Behera, was sent to rescue the reptile.

As he cut the strings to free the cobra, he observed a huge bulge inside its abdomen.

The cobra soon started trying to regurgitate its last meal.

Susant saw a viper’s tail as the cobra opened its mouth. But the strings of the fishing net got struck in its mouth and stopped the rest of the viper’s body from coming out.

Susant carefully cut the strings and helped the cobra spit out the viper in full.

Subhendu Mallik, founder of Snake Helpline, said: “ If Susant had not removed the strings from the mouth and fangs of the cobra, it could have met with a slow and painful death."

“It’s common for cobra’s to hunt vipers. They have a neurotoxic venom while vipers have hemotoxic venom. Neurotoxins paralyses the nervous system first and this gives the cobra a clear edge vipers,” he said.