A snake rescuer was forced to travel through deep floodwaters in eastern India last week to rescue a deadly cobra caught in a fishing net.

Footage captured on September 22 in the village of Puri showed Susant Behera from the organisation Snake Helpline reaching the stricken reptile via a makeshift raft and then cutting it free with a knife.

He released the cobra shortly afterwards in its natural habitat away from the floodwaters.

"During floods, snakes flee from the water looking for dry land and end up in human settlements,” said Subhendu Mallik from Snake Helpline.

A village in Puri district in eastern India was cut off from the world due to flood.

On September 22, a cobra entered the house of a villager, Somnath Baliyarsingh, and got trapped in an abandoned fishing net while looking for food.

Getting a call from the fearful house owner, a Snake Helpline volunteer, Susant Behera, went to rescue the four-feet-long poisonous snake though the flood had made the village inaccessible.

He had to ride his motorcycle through two kilometers on a flooded road and then use a makeshift raft to reach the village cut off by the flood.

Susant caught the cobra and then had to single handedly free it as no villager dared to get near.
He restrained the deadly snake with one hand and then used a sharp knife to snip off fishing net strings with the other.

He took back the snake with him and released it in a dry natural habitat.

Subhendu Mallik, General Secretary of Snake Helpline, said: "Susant showed extreme dedication in saving this cobra. During floods, snakes flee from water looking for dry land and end up in human settlements.”