Saroj Kumar Das, who lives on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar in eastern India, sat on a sofa at his home on May 12 and felt something move under him. <br /><br />Busy with his phone, he ignored it and continued to sit on his sofa, when he felt the movement again. <br /><br />This time he thought something was amiss and quickly got off the sofa. When he tried to check, a hissing sound came from inside warning him to stay away. <br /><br />He called Snake Helpline, who sent a volunteer, Biranchi Narayan Acharjya, on a rescue mission. Biranchi took the sofa to the courtyard and searched, but was unable to spot the snake easily which continued to hiss warnings. <br /><br />He cut open sofa cover, panels and dug inside. After nearly 30 minutes, a four-feet-long Indian spectacled cobra peeped out. Biranchi caught it and released it in a safe location.<br /> <br />Subhendu Mallik, founder of Snake Helpline, said: "It was horrifying to find a deadly cobra inside the sofa. Its fangs could have easily penetrated the cover and injected venom.<br /><br />“Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, snakes are entering homes more than before as people are off the streets,” he added.
