Winter here, snakes in bed giving Haryana's Fatehabad nightmares

FATEHABAD: Snakes infesting Fatehabad houses after the floods now creep into people's beds at night and sit coiled under their sofas. A terrified district is unable get good sleep or rest.

A week ago, a cobra sneaked into Bhattu villager Duniram Suthar's blanket and slept cosy there all night. In the morning, the man woke up to a hissing sound, which at first he dismissed as a cat around the bed and then got a scare of his life. Even his family was shocked before it recovered to throw a blanket over the wriggler and called a snake-charmer, who released the uninvited guest into the forest.

On Saturday night, another snake entered the house of Deepak in Bhattu's Shiv Colony. This black 5-footer hid under the sofa.

Its hiss gave it away in the morning. The family spent a night in danger and a team of snake-charmers came to its rescue. Another 5-footer entered the public health department's water tank at Tohana, forcing the employees to ring up a snakeman.

Snake catcher Pawan Jogpal, who responded to the emergency, said: "In the present cold weather, snakes enter homes in search of warm places, where they like to sit until human movement around scares them and, sensing danger, they bite the nearest person.