Lipun Behera, a resident of a village near Bhubaneswar in eastern India, found a snake swimming in his well on March 25.

He could see that it was an extremely venomous Russell's viper.

He called Snake Helpline and volunteer, Asis Behera, rushed to the spot to rescue the snake. He found that the deadly viper had taken refuge inside a crevice of the stone wall.

Though Ashis is trained to pull out snakes from wells with the help of a hook, in this case only a small portion of the snake’s body was visible.

With no option left, Ashis had to climb down the well using a ladder and rope, risking his life.

He managed to pull the snake out of the crevice with the help of a snake tong and then put it in a bag. The snake in the bag was then lifted up by the local villagers.

Founder of Snake Helpline Subhendu Mallik said: "Our volunteers are trained to rescue snakes without getting into the wells. But in this case there was choice.”

The snake was later released in a nearby forest.