{"id":136240,"date":"2025-09-06T04:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T04:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/136240\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T04:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T04:07:09","slug":"no-mistaking-fabled-king-after-chance-encounter-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/136240\/","title":{"rendered":"No mistaking fabled \u2018king\u2019 after chance encounter in India"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Indian Forest Service employee has shared an image showing a large snake pausing in a clearing with its head and neck raised in a classic cobra posture.<\/p>\n

Parveen Kaswan stated via\u00a0X<\/a>: \u201cThis beauty. Let\u2019s see who can guess the species.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responses quickly formed an overwhelming consensus that the snake in question was, as one commenter remarked, \u201cThe King himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"King<\/p>\n

King cobra pauses in clearing.<\/p>\n

King cobras<\/a>, which can measure 15-plus feet, are the longest venomous snakes on earth. They inhabit rainforests and plains in northern India, southern China, and Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n

Although rarely encountered, king cobras are revered in India, where they\u2019re considered the national reptile.<\/p>\n

ALSO: Massive alligator bagged in Mississippi falls just shy of record<\/a><\/p>\n

They’re not typically aggressive toward humans, choosing to escape rather than bite in most cases. But a king cobra bite, if not treated immediately, can kill a person in less than 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

Kaswan, at the time of this post, had not provided details regarding the sighting. Nor had he responded to comments beneath his X post.<\/p>\n

\"Generic<\/p>\n

Generic king cobra image.<\/p>\n

One follower, referring to a\u00a0recent study<\/a>\u00a0that suggests there are four types of king cobras in India, commented:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s now established as 4 different species in different ranges. Assuming this is in northern India, it’s\u00a0Ophiophagus hannah. If it were from the Western Ghats, it’d be\u00a0Ophiophagus kaalinga, based on the recent classification.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another follower observed: \u201cThe Most Mythical of Serpents. The One who Straddles Terrestrial Earth & Heavenly Divinity. The Companion to Lord Shiva. Worshipped & Feared in equal measure by Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

A man claiming to be a physician remarked, \u201cWe are not left with much to do when a patient is brought to us after it has bitten them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013This is a repost from October 2024<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on For The Win: No mistaking legendary \u2018king\u2019 after chance encounter in India<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Indian Forest Service employee has shared an image showing a large snake pausing in a clearing with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[2344,85399,85398,85397,85396,79,17536,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-136240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-india","9":"tag-indian-forest-service","10":"tag-king-cobra","11":"tag-king-cobras","12":"tag-northern-india","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-venomous-snakes","15":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}