A brave wildlife official rescued a cobra that fell into a 70-foot-deep irrigation well in Ahmednagar, western India.

Akash Jadhav and his team arrived at the well after a terrified farmer had informed them of the trapped snake.

Nawaz Shaikh was lowered down into the watery pit towards the aggressive cobra.

After nearly 45 minutes, Shaikh managed to catch the deadly snake and it was later released into the wild.

Jadhav said: "The snake was agitated and we could hear its hiss on the surface. It takes nerves of steel to even get close to it when you are dangling in the air.”

This footage was filmed on May 9.

A cobra fell into a 70-feet deep irrigation well near Ahmednagar in western India on May 9.

The terrified farmer called Animal Rescue Society and Akash Jadhav went to the spot with his team to rescue the snake.

Team member Nawaz Shaikh went down the well with the help of a harness and soon realised it was going to be a very risky rescue work.

The cobra was in the middle of the well that had several feet of water. Nawaz had to be lowered right on top of the snake to enable him to reach it.

The cobra turned out to be a very aggressive and there was a real danger of it striking at Nawaz as he got close to it.

In a tense operation Nawaz approached it carefully, protecting himself with his snake stick. After nearly 45 minutes of dangling in the air, he managed to catch the deadly snake and put it in his bag.

The snake was later released in the forest along with a rat snake that had been rescued from another village.

Akash said: “The snake was agitated and we could hear its hiss on the surface. It takes nerves of steel to even get close to it when you are dangling in the air.”