Neeranjan Bhaskar says snake blood tastes like milk, and that his meals are not complete without one
The artist, who catches the snakes himself, says he likes the taste of the reptile's blood.
"The snake's blood tastes like raw milk. I like the whole idea of going near a snake, grabbing it and consuming its flesh. My meal is not complete without a snake," he says.
Bhaskar goes to the banks of the Ghagra River every morning, looking for snakes in the holes, under the rocks and in the cracks on the riverbank.
He ate raw snake flesh for the first time when he was seven years old. "It was the rainy season of 1977. A dhor snake attacked me while I was on my way to school. I tried hard to get rid of it, but the snake did not leave me. When I could not find a way to escape, I bit the snake in a fit of anger and pain. I continued biting it and finally gobbled it fully," Bhaskar recounted.
He has eaten a snake a day ever since - but his parents were ignorant of his strange habit for seven years.
"My father tried to convince me to abandon my inclination towards reptiles but I had already developed an addiction for the snakes," Bhaskar says.
He credits himself with gobbling up more than 4,000 snakes so far, and wants to get himself into the Guinness Book of World Records.
"At present, the world record for living with deadly snakes is for 32 days. If given a chance, I'm sure that I can stay with the reptiles for 40 days at a stretch."
Bhaskar is married and has four daughters whom he has trained to deal with snakes without fear.
"They do not eat snakes but play with them," he says.