A snake rescuer in eastern India struggled to control two cobras recently that were locked in a fierce battle.

Expert rescuer Sujit Kumar Mohanty was called to a home in Sunabeda in Odisha state on Sunday (May 16) after a local reported seeing a snake.

He located a cobra but when he lifted its tail was surprised to discover that it was in the process of swallowing one of its own.

When Mohanty set the snakes down in the backyard of the property, the larger reptile released the smaller one and they began fighting.

It took Mohanty 10 minutes to prise them apart and place them in separate bags.

Subhendu Mallik, General Secretary of Snake Helpline, asked Mohanty to keep the two cobras under observation overnight to see the effect of their venom on each other.

“Cobras are known cannibals but scientists are still debating if they are immune to their own venom. As producing venom is a very costly metabolic process, we are also not sure if these snakes injected each other with their poison," said Mallik.

The two cobras were found to be alive on May 17 and were released successfully into the wild.

A resident of Sunabeda in eastern India saw a cobra in her garage and called Snake Helpline for rescue on May 16.

A volunteer, Sujit Kumar Mohanty, went to the spot and lifted the tail of the snake with his snake hook.

The snake turned out to be two snakes: a 2.5 feet long cobra had almost swallowed the head of a smaller 2 feet-long cobra.

When a surprised Sujit released both of them in the backyard, the smaller cobra escaped from the mouth of the larger snake and a ferocious fight followed.

Both the snakes bit each other’s neck and refused to let go even ignoring the presence of humans. Sujit took nearly 10 minutes to break up the fight and put them in separate bags.

Subhendu Mallik, General Secretary of Snake Helpline, asked him to keep the two cobras under observation overnight to see the effect of their venom on each other.

The two cobras were found to be alive on May 17 morning and were released in the wild.

Subhendu said: “Cobras are known cannibals. But scientists are still debating if they are immune to their own venom. As producing venom is a very costly metabolic process, we are also not sure if these snakes injected each other with their poison.”