Snake experts were surprised recently to find three deadly snakes nesting together in an abandoned toilet in northeastern India.

A resident of a village near Cuttack in the state of Odisha lifted the lid on the toilet pit and was shocked to find three highly venomous banded kraits nesting there with clutches of eggs.

Snake catcher Nalini Prasad Das travelled to the village and painstakingly removed the deadly serpents and placed them in a bag.

Das wanted to leave the eggs untouched to let them hatch naturally but local residents forced him to remove the eggs.

The eggs were taken to the Snake Helpline office for artificial incubation and he released the three female snakes in a suitable natural habitat away from the village.

Subhendu Mallik, the founder of Snake Helpline, said: "Snakes lay eggs after choosing a safe place with ideal temperature and humidity. Here three banded kraits independently chose the unused toilet pit to lay eggs. Two of them had laid eggs and the third one was found out before it could probably follow suit. ”

The babies will be handed over to the local forest officials after they hatch.

While community nesting is well studied among birds, it is seldom documented in snakes in the wild. A rare video shows three venomous banded kraits coming together to lay eggs at an abandoned toilet pit in eastern India.

A resident of a village near Cuttack decided to raze an abandoned toilet pit on April 9. When the workers lifted the concrete slab they found three deadly Banded kraits with two clutch of eggs inside.

They called Snake Helpline for help and a volunteer, Nalini Prasad Das, went to the spot and rescued the snakes one by one and put them in bag.

He wanted to leave the eggs untouched to let them hatch naturally. But as the fearful neighbours forced him to remove the eggs, he shifted the eggs to the Snake Helpline office for artificial incubation. He released the mother snakes at a suitable natural habitat away from the village.

Subhendu Mallik founder of Snake Helpline said: "Snakes lay eggs after choosing a safe place with ideal temperature and humidity. Here three banded kraits independently chose the unused toilet pit to lay eggs. Two of them had laid eggs and the third one was found out before it could probably follow suit. ”

The babies will be handed over to the local forest officials after they hatch.