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Forty-year-old Nanhu, a servant at the former princely estate of Suraicha in Sitapur district, about 60 km from here, has so far eaten hundreds of snakes.
“The mere sight of snakes increases my appetite...people immediately inform me whenever they spot a snake,” Nanhu says. He started eating snakes 20 years ago. Interestingly Nanhu, who was suffering from some health-related problems, had first eaten a poisonous snake with the intention of committing suicide.
“I was fed up with my mysterious disease and wanted to die...I caught a snake and ate it after roasting it, though nothing happened to me,” Nanhu said.
He claimed that he began to feel better after eating the snake. Since then he never looked back.
Nanhu can catch a snake with a foot long stick. “He (Nanhu) is an expert snake catcher...he holds the snakes by their hood and eats them raw,” said Udai Bhan Singh, Nanhu’s master.
Nanhu has become highly popular in the area. Now, people inform him, instead of snake charmers, whenever they see a snake in their house or in the fields, Singh said.
The sighting of snakes has lessened to a great extent in Nanhu’s own village of Suraicha. “Some times I have to go without them (snakes) for days together,” he said.
Doctors, however, say that eating snakes is a common thing. “People in the north eastern states of Assam, Manpiur and others eat snakes,” said the additional chief medical officer of Sitapur, Dr Sharad Chandra.