An Instagram Reel isn’t worth your life. We wish someone had told this to a 20-year-old man from Telangana, India named Shivaraj. In September, Shivaraj recorded a video in which he put a live cobra snake’s head into his mouth and held it there for over 40 seconds. Unsurprisingly, the venomous cobra bit the man inside his mouth. He later died. Indian news outlets report the purpose of the video was for social media.
In the video, you see Shivaraj standing on a path, stuffing a cobra’s head into his mouth. After he places the snake where he wants it, he stands calmly with his hands folded in prayer position. The snake wiggles in an attempt to get free. The man recording the video speaks a couple of times, and eventually Shivaraj gives him a thumbs up, and then the video cuts off.
Several media outlets in India shared the footage, further reporting that the young man later passed away from a snake bite he obtained during this stunt. One outlet further reports that the whole thing was Shivaraj’s father’s idea.
“The man and his father made a living by killing snakes,” reports the Hindustan Times. “They also caught this snake, and his father asked him to make a video of the reptile to put on WhatsApp groups. On doing so, the snake immediately bit him, causing his death.”
Watch as a young man puts a cobra in his mouth here:
A journalist from India also shared the bizarre video on X. In his caption, he refers to Shivaraj as “the gullible youngster”:
Here is the gullible youngster, who held a cobra in his mouth to get filmed possibly for posting on social media platforms.
He died later as the snake bit him in his mouth. This bizarre incident happened in Desaipet village of #Kamareddy district in #Telangana. #bizarre pic.twitter.com/oNneAoydo8— Srinivas Reddy K (@KSriniReddy) September 6, 2024