A teenager lost his life after allegedly being bitten by a venomous cobra that he had rescued in Naigaon on Su... Read More

MUMBAI: A teenager lost his life after allegedly being bitten by a venomous cobra that he had rescued in Naigaon on Sunday. Avez Mistry (19), a resident of Pereira Nagar in Naigaon (west), used to rescue snakes and animals in distress.

On Sunday, around 5pm, residents of a nearby building went to Avez's home to request him to trap a cobra that had made their compound its home. However, the teenager was away and his mother, Rukaiya, told the visitors that Avez had stopped rescuing snakes after he was bitten by a baby cobra in November. The residents requested Rukaiya to convince Avez to help them. At his mother's insistence, Avez agreed to trap the cobra. During the process, Avez was bitten on his right hand but he continued to trap the cobra, put it in a bag and left on his bike to release it in the wild. The whole act was videorecorded by the residents.

Around 9pm, when Avez returned home, he told his mother he had been bitten by the snake. His father Imtiaz then took him to a hospital in Vasaigaon, where Avez revealed that he had been bitten four to five times on his back. As Avez's condition worsened, he was rushed to a civic intensive care unit in Nalasopara. Doctors said the venom had spread across his body .“Avez's vision began to blur and the poison spread fast,“ said Imtiaz. At 11.30pm, Avez was declared dead.

Avez had no formal training in animal rescue but had trapped several snakes and released them in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Tungareshwar jungle. His parents said Avez was an animal lover and spent his pocket money to buy food for animals.

