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Living with the cobras: The remote Maharastra village where snakes roam freely from house to house

12:34 PM Aug 27, 2021 | Team Udayavani |
Hindus worship the serpent god 'Naga' and God Shiva's image is never complete without the black serpent swirling around his neck. There are no records of any temple particularly dedicated to the reptile. However, this village partially shakes that story.
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Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) is common among most people.

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Even the person with the most hard-boiled courage will rattle for a moment on looking at these venomous animals.

In India, snakes are objects and subjects of worship and there are people who live with real cobras.

This is true in Shetpal village in the State of Maharashtra. People here share their good life with snakes.

Shetpal is about 200 kilometres from Pune and is now home to thousands of different types of dry weather snakes

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It is a stereotype in many Western countries that India is a country of snake charmers. A visit to Sheptal village would make these foreigners to take the idea a little more seriously.

Residents of this village are not afraid of snakes. Just as many are accustomed to live with cats and dogs, people here caress different varieties of snakes without the slightest fear.

The snakes are members of the family and mostly live inside houses as and along with children.

There are about 2,600 residents in the village and they worship all the snakes there every day.

The villagers do not know when and how exactly the practice of worshipping the reptiles as god began there.

A temple located in the village, Siddeshwar temple, provides medicine and cures those bitten by snakes.

It is believed that the temple deity – an idol of God Shiva with a seven-headed serpent over him – has the power to cure those bitten by snakes.

A surprising claim made by the villagers is that no resident of the village has ever been bitten by a snake.

As per records with the Government of Maharashtra, 100 cases of snake bites were reported from this village in 1974. However, no cases have been registered since then.

Another noteworthy thing is that it is not known whether the snakes living in this village are venomous or not.

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