A five-hour-long effort to save a pregnant viper that had become tangled in coal tar dumped by the side of a road has ended in heartbreak.<br /><br />India's Snake Helpline received a distress call that a Russell's viper -<br />one of the world’s deadliest snakes - had been found tangled in coal tar. <br /><br />The tar had melted in the blistering summer heat and trapped the snake, which had tried to slither through it. <br /><br />By the time the volunteers arrived, someone in the crowd had already freed the snake by pouring diesel on it. <br /><br />Subhendu Mallik of Snake Helpline said: “Diesel fumes damage lungs and dehydrates snakes. The botched rescue aggravated the condition of the badly injured snake.”<br /><br />The snake, whose face completely smeared with tar, was shifted to a veterinary hospital run by the Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology (OUAT). <br /><br />Two veterinary surgeons and their staff battled to save the weakened but agitated snake. <br /><br />Dr Biswadeep Jena of OUAT said: “The handler was holding the snake with his bare hands. Its two big fangs were visible to us as we removed tar from its face.” <br /><br />Despite their effort, the snake grew weak and then something started stirring inside its stomach. <br /><br />After an X-ray revealed that the snake was heavily pregnant, the vets carried out a caesarean procedure to save the babies. <br /><br />They pulled out 19 baby vipers but none of them survived. They all succumbed to the trauma and the lack of oxygen. The mother also died. <br /><br />“The thick layer of coal tar made it difficult for us to spot the pregnancy earlier,” said Dr Jena.
