Gardener bites snake in retaliation, kills reptile

Bhubaneswar, Nov 8: A snake biting man is no news, but a man biting a snake to death made news in Orissa. A 25-year-old gardener, furious at being bitten by a snake, grabbed the reptile, tore it apart and chewed bits of its flesh just outside the capital of this coastal Indian state.

The incident took place Saturday in a government-managed park at Baramunda area.

The snake had bitten Ramesh Kumar Jamda, the gardener of the park, when he was removing weeds, Oriya news paper Sambad reported Sunday. A furious Jamda then caught hold of the snake and chewed parts of its body and swallowed the flesh.

Jamda then fell unconscious and was taken by other park employees to the local hospital. While the snake died on the spot, Jamda managed to survive after treatment, the paper said.

"I was very angry when the snake bit me on my finger. I chewed parts of its body to take revenge," Jamda was quoted as saying. The paper has not said if the snake was a poisonous one.