When floodwaters submerged the ground floor 12 days ago, a 50-year-old woman and her three daughters were forced to move to the first floor of their two-storey home at Dhekirghat village in Ghatal, West Midnapore.

The relief of finding a refuge above the floodwaters proved short-lived, though: the woman spotted a huge, venomous snake lying coiled on their bed last Tuesday.

With floodwaters swirling around the house and the village cut off, the woman knew who to call for help. She called timber mill owner Malay Ghosh, 46, for whom rescuing snakes -- and people from snakebites -- has been a passion and social obligation since 2001.

Ghosh has caught over 170 snakes in the last 12 days from flood-hit areas of Ghatal subdivision. He charges no fee.

"When I got the distress call from the woman, I was a little over 1km from her home. But to reach her I needed a boat as the entire stretch was flooded,” Ghosh said.

“But desperate moments demand extraordinary responses. The woman asked me to wait and arrived in a boat she had hired to take me to her home and back."

Ghosh said the 7ft snake was an Indian spectacled cobra whose neurotoxic venom, once it enters the veins, kills an adult “in 40 minutes to an hour”.

"But in most cases, the victims panic and die of cardiac arrest much earlier."

Ghosh received the Barnaparichay Award --- given in memory of Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar --- from the Ghatal administration in January this year for having caught over 20,000 snakes since 2001. It comes to an average of more than 16 snakes a week.

He is a survivor of 26 snake bites. "The most recent bite happened at flood-hit Agar village in Chandrakona (West Midnapore) around 11 days ago,” he said.

“I got a call informing me that a monocled cobra had taken shelter under the mattress in a flood-hit home. The residents had slept on the bed unaware that danger was lurking underneath.”

Ghosh said he lifted the mattress and pulled the almost 6ft long snake out.

“But when I lifted the entire mattress to check, I saw its partner, too, coiled under it. I took it out with a tong but as I held it, a local man suddenly poked it with an iron rod. The snake sprang and bit me,” he said.

“With two snakes in my bag, I went to the sub-divisional hospital at Birsingha village, where Vidyasagar once lived. A blood test showed it was a dry bite (when no venom is injected into the body). It was the 26th snake bite I had suffered, of which 22 were dry bites. On the four other occasions I had to take anti-venom,” Ghosh laughed.

He asked for a break in the conversation to respond to a rescue call from a flooded village in Sultanpur.

The Ghatal subdivision, fed by the Shilabati, Dwarkeswar and Kangsabati rivers, is swampy and marshy, which makes it a natural habitat for snakes. The subdivision is home to venomous snakes including the spectacled cobra, monocled cobra, Russel’s viper and the common krait.

Ghosh has rescued snakes belonging to most of these species, often travelling to Hooghly and neighbouring districts.

“Once I travelled 120km from my home to catch a king cobra, which is a rarity in this part of Bengal," he said.

On doing it for free, he said: "Forget money, I don’t even drink water from where I catch snakes. Rescuing snakes and saving human lives is a social commitment for me and I don’t expect anything in exchange. I also transport snakebite victims to hospital. I do this round the year, 24x7."

Ghosh does this with minimal support from the district administration. During floods, police and the administration often pitch in with speedboats or country boats to help him reach difficult-to-access areas – but only if there are any to spare after attending to relief requirements.

"He is an extraordinary man. We can provide him with very little support. Such is his passion that he has put his family business at stake to rescue snakes and save people. He charges no money," Ghatal sub-divisional officer Suman Biswas said.

"He has caught over 20,000 snakes. He has been a true saviour this time, running across four flood-hit blocks — Ghatal, Daspur I, Daspur II and Chandrakona I — and the Ghatal and Kharar municipalities. He recently rescued a snake from my office premises."

Ghosh had been a wildlife enthusiast since childhood and watched snake-catchers keenly before mastering the craft himself.

Every snake he catches goes into the forest department records.

He was honoured on Sunday at Birsingha village for his stellar performance in rescuing snakes and saving lives.

Shibaprasad Hazra, a small farmer in Pursuri, Chandrakona, has a story that explains why the SDO described Ghosh as an "extraordinary man".

“Ten days ago, I spotted a common krait at our doorstep at 1am. All I knew was that I had to call Malayda even at that unearthly hour. With floodwaters all around, our mud house was the only dry area and the snake had found it a safe place to stay, putting our lives at risk,” Hazra said.

“Malayda arrived in a boat within an hour and, to our horror, took away eight snakes from our house. The ones we had not spotted were monocled cobras. Had he not come, who knows if I would have been talking to you today.”

To Ghosh, human behaviour can sometimes sting worse than a snakebite.

"Two days ago, I rescued a snake from a schoolteacher's house. As I was about to leave, he handed me ₹100. Had I asked for it? Then why this stinging insult? Snakebites can be treated with anti-venom, but there is no remedy for such insults. It hurt me immensely.”

The gurgle of his motorcycle engine reached this correspondent over the phone. Ghosh was off to his 175th rescue act of this year’s floods.