NK Singh tries to snare a cobra in Jamshedpur. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Sarita Singh was in for a shock when she found a cobra coiled inside the refrigerator one morning. Petrified, the 45-year-old Telco homemaker ran to inform her husband who dialled 9431329824. Within a short while, he arrived on a scooter with another man. Bespectacled with a cellphone dangling around his neck, he took only a few minutes.

The reptile was inside the toolbox of their scooter in no time.

Meet Nawal Kishore Singh, a former Tata Steel employee and resident of Baghbera, who is godsend for steel city residents often encountering slithery visitors inside their homes.

“All of us were extremely scared,” Sarita recalled her ordeal. “But, it took him barely 10 minutes to catch the snake.”

Singh (66), who runs a cobra breeding farm and poison extraction unit in Kuchai (West Singhbhum), doesn’t charge a paisa for his services. It’s just that he is fascinated by snakes and enjoys the challenge of catching them.

“Snakes, poisonous or otherwise, are found in abundance in Jamshedpur. They often enter homes, colleges, jails and other public places. I do not waste time when people call me to get rid of snakes. I have a liking for this job,” Singh told The Telegraph.

Singh, who has been doing this for over a decade, rushes to any corner of the city when summoned. But, most of his clients include residents of Nildih Bungalows, areas around Jamshedpur Co-operative College and Jubilee Park.

Naturally, he is extremely busy during monsoons when snakes are forced to venture out of their hideouts in search of dry places.

Singh has been stung number of times. But, he remains undeterred. “Anti-venom vaccines come handy. I don’t forget to carry them on my assignments,” he pointed out.

What does he do with the snakes he catches?

Singh says he releases the non-poisonous ones in the forests, while the poisonous ones are dispatched to his breeding farm in Kuchai where he extracts the poison and sells it to Christian Medical College, Vellore, at a nominal price.

Singh is surprisingly agile for his age. No wonder his clients watch him in awe. “I keep myself happy and eat very little,” he says about his fitness regime. “I do a risky job and staying fit is important.”