New meaning of festival (Monocellete Cobra)

How can a festive season, which is repeated every year become special?? When some extra value addition happens in it. And that is exactly how this festive season become special for me.

At about 12:30pm on the day of Swasthi, I was traveling by bus to meet with some of my college friends when my cellphone rang. It was my school teacher-friend Gudduda, beside teaching who also considers himself a naturalist. It all started as usual, "where are you, what are you doing?" Then the tension picked up when he said that he has captured a juvenile monocellete cobra in his school and want me to pick it up from his school. I said to myself, "what the hell!! It had to happen today??" I said him that I would arrange somebody. Then I tried everyone of my friends who had a motorbike and who were at home,


I tried atleast 7-8 people but everyone was negative. I was utterly dis-appointed. I called back Gudduda and requested him to thought out some way except killing the snake. He was also concerned. So he tried his friends but with futile result. We lost all hope, suddenly Niladri, one of my friends, called back. I didn't expect his call. As I know him, he was least bothered about wildlife and all that. May be it was our friendship which urged him to help. But whatever it was, was a gift for us. I talked with him and told him to pick up the snake from Gudduda's school and deliver it in my room. All this happened when I was in the bus and to make them agree I was literally yelling on the phone. Suddenly I realized that every single one in the bus was looking at me. I restored myself and sit calmly. After about 45minutes they called and informed me of the safe deposition of the snake in my room.

The next day when I returned home, the first thing I did was to run to my room o checkout the little fella. I found it inside my terrarium, sealed in a plastic jar. When I picked it up it was quick to response. It striked the jar wall with such ferocity which clearly tells that, "I may be small but don't fool around with me". It was a small snake only 8"-10" long and like every juvenile snake, it had brilliant sharp markings. I kept it with me for 2 days to watch various behavioral changes.

Then came the time of releasing. On the day of Navami I decided to free it. It was a sunny morning. I set out with it to the release site but on the way I witnessed another unfortunate incident. A bus had run down 2 people. There was agitated people everywhere but I could not figure out the condition of the two people. So I decided to move forward.

At the release site, I choose a spot and bring out the jar of snake. As soon as I took it out, it was jumping with joy seeing the daylight and open field. I had decided to take some snaps after I release it. So I prepared my camera and released it. The snake was too busy to escape. I could not even get a single shot as I wanted. Previously when I had released the viper, it had hold its ground. I was not even able to move it with a stick. But the case is totally opposite with the cobra. The snake just would not stop for a moment. It took a great deal of time and effort even to get a few shots. Then I realized, I've got a visitor. A boy of 17-18 years age was watching me. I became worried for the snake. He could kill the snake easily after I leave. Suddenly an idea striked my head.


I started conversing with the boy. Though the area I choose was far from human homes, I found out the boy was a local resident. At first he thought I was trying to capture it but it didn't took him long to realize the case. He become anxious. So I started to talk with him about the necessity of snakes. I talked about conservation, local snake species, the society we formed, ecology, food-chain and everything else. The basic Idea was to give the snake enough time to escape in the swamp. I almost gave him a long half an hour lecture. I concluded by giving him my number for any assistance regarding wildlife. The boy was too confused to say anything. Then I headed for home knowing that by our collective effort, a life was saved again.

Natural history

Monocellete Cobra or in general Indian Cobra is one of the four most medically important snakes of India. And it is one of the most abandon snake of India. Except arid regions and upper of 1800m above sea level, it inhabits every kind of habitat ranging from heavy jungle, open cultivated land, swamps and even human populated areas. This broad range of habitat increases its conflict with human. Every year thousands of people die in rural India by the bite of Indian Cobra. Each full bite of it has enough venom to kill 12 adult human. But fortunately not every bite is fatal. The power of the bite depends upon many factors like amount of venom injected, physical condition of the victim, condition of the snake etc. The venom is neuro-toxin. It affects the nervous system but it also has some property of heamo-toxin. So the cumulative effect is the paralysis of respiratory system, red blood cells are destroyed and blood looses cloting property. The victim feels burning pain and the area oozes blood strained syrum. Head, neck, lips and eyelids droops. Breathing becomes difficult. The only way of treating is by anti-venom syrum which is available at hospitals. So if someone is bitten, he or she should be rushed to the nearest hospital without loosing any precious time.


Indian Cobra is a nocturnal snake means it is active during the night. But Indian Cobra prefers to hunt at dawn and dusk.It mainly feeds on rodents. By this way it supports the fight of farmers against rodents to a great extent. Other than eating lizards and fish, it also likes to eat eggs. One interesting thing is that it shows parental care. Either one of the parents guards the eggs, which varies from 12-22 eggs, until they hatch. The young snakes are poised with venom from birth and are much more dangerous than the adult as they are more fierce and ready to strike than the adults. Instead, adults are usually not aggressive and often very timid. But if threatened they will take the classical pose opening its hood, raising almost 1/3rd of its body above ground and swaying froward and backward. A loud hissing and flickering of tongue accompanies the pose.

surprized visitor part II

To hell with forest dept, to hell with govt. employees. When people are doing their bit to conserve wildlife, those who are appointed by govt to do the job are behaving irresponsibly.

This incident is the sequel of the previous incident of resqueing a chameleon. In that incident I found a chameleon to be carried by a man, talked with him and made him agree to surrender it to the forest dept. So he handed it over to the forest officials. Here the previous story ends and the new one begins.

Near about 1 week after that incident I again got a call from Khokonda, my photo-journalist friend. He told me yet another chameleon was found and this time just near the forest dept office itself. I was surprised, 2 chameleon siting in 2 weeks in a place where chameleons are not even found!! So I thought to investigate the matter.

Me and some other people went to that place with Khokonda. We met a young boy named Anik. He leaded us to his house and told us to wait. Then within a few minutes, he returned with a rusty bird cage. In that cage was a chameleon and it was exactly the same one. I didnt understand how after handling it over to the forest officials, did it end up in this tiny rusty cage!! But when I looked at the chameleon carefully that question was pushed aside by the health condition of it. It had a wound at the tip of its lower jaw. I suppose that happened when it tried to escape the rusty cage. So I tried to take it out of the cage. That boy Anik had not any idea what to do with it but he too cared about this beautiful lizard. So he understood the situation and helped us a lot. With everubody's help, I was able to bring the chameleon out of the cage. Then we borrowed a old shoebox from Anik, put the lizard inside and rushed it to a vet. But to our badluck no vet was available as it was sunday. So finally I bought it home.

The next day Khokonda told me the story behind. After we left the chameleon at forest office, nobody bothered about it. And after several days, they actually released it in their own backyard. I dont know how they have acted so irresponsibly!!! That area is very much crowded and there are many residential houses. it wont be long before it catches somebody's attention and again become captive and that was just what happned. Did they even think once before doing such thing?

When I brought it home, I out a great responsibility upon myself. In captivity, I myself would be responsible for its well being. But for the time being i told myself that it would be a nice opportunity to observe its behaviour. So first I sheltered it in an old aquarium. Thought it will like it but it didnt. It was a very intelligent animal. The corner of the covering that I lifted to put in some grasshoppers, it came to that point as soon as I stepped back and tried to push it up. But for now I had no bigger option. The next morning I built a bigger encloser by putting two plant pots inside a fishing net. It was nice and airy as I found out chameleons prefer circulated air. I put a little medicine on the wound and put it inside. Now after settlement I found a behavioural change. already before I grabbed it a few times, for maximum threatning purpose it opened its mouth and posed but no sound. Now when I tried to grab it, it made loud hiss just like a viper! Well, as it could not venture out to catch some insects, so I had to do the job. Next 2-3 days I was running behind grass hoppers and dragon flies just like when I was a kid. But whenever i offered it some insect, it was quick to grab it and eay it. All day it spent on top of the plants going from brunch to brunch but as soon as it was 5'o clock, it would find a nice thick brunch at mid level and would go to sleep.

After a few days the wound dried and I could see the restlessness increasing in it. It had already scouted every single squre inch of the encloser to find a spot to escape. So I took it out and released it in a suitable place far from locality without any delay. Afterall it has the same right to live free just like us.

Surprised Visitor (Indian Chameleon)

After the rescue of the Russell's viper I gained some popularity among a few boys. So on this fine evening, we were chatting among ourselves in our regular hangout place. Suddenly a crowed gathered around a car in the middle of the street. I thought that some kind of accident could have happen. But some boys from inside the crowed was yelling by my name to check it out. So I got up and positioned myself in the center of the crowed. And I didn't belief what I saw.

A chameleon was sitting on the bumper of a car. I was stunned. I never saw one outside a zoo and seeing one on the streets of Tamluk like this would be the last thing to come to my mind. In a moment by the roar of the crowed I came into reality. The crowed became hysteric. they were touching, pocking, gesturing, doing all sorts of thing to the chameleon. I cant blame them knowing the fact that it was the first time for them to see such an spectacular and peculiar species. But they were really threatening it. So I grabbed it and picked it up but it was tied with a rope. I tried to loosen the rope but could not. And the driver was shouting,"hey! put it down, put it down." Then he started the engine and of they go. But before their escaping, I did one important thing. I recognized the driver.


He was from our neighborhood. So the first thing in the next morning was to go to his house and have a talk. I didn't even waited for toilet. I caught him before he went out for his days work. they had put the chameleon on a tree but the rope was still there. he told me that he found it on the road near Ramnagar. the chameleon was walking on the road and only because it jumped seeing the light of the car he saw it. Now he is clueless what to do with it. One thing was assuring that he don't want to keep the chameleon as a pet. So I suggested him to return it to the Forest Dept. I even told him about the rareness of these fine creature and also about the Wildlife Protection Act. of India by which he could have been punished for upto 7 years of imprisonment. So after all thing discussion he agreed to go to the Forest Dept. But again he said he didnt know anybody there. So I asked him to come with me as I have some folks there. We made a timing and I returned home.


Due to some incidents i was late. So when i reached him, he told me he already returned it to forest dept. So I called my friend from Bartaman newspaper, he is a photojournalist of that paper, and we headed for the office. There we found our little fella in a cage. The officials were very much helpful. So we took out the chameleon, put it on a brunch and started our photo session. We even managed to feed the chameleon 10-12 grasshoppers. It was essential 'cause I was not sure how long will it be there. We measured it to be of 13" in length. My photographer friend was really fascinated by it. So after a long 1-1/2 hours photo session we left the place.


Natural History

Chameleons are one of the most bizzare lizards of the world. They are mainly found from East Africa abd Madagascar but one species occurs in India i.e. Indian Chameleon. Their distribution is through out India except the heavy rain fall region but due to their territorial and solitary nature Indian Chameleons are uncommon to rare in their habitat.

Every aspect of this fantastic lizard is fascinating in some ways or other. If we start from the head, they have a cone shaped on their head which looks like a helmet. They have a tongue which can be extended as long as its body length and the tip of the tongue is sticky and club shaped by which they capture prey. They have huge eyes but the eyelid has only a small opening for the pupil. the eyes are also capable to move independently. The chameleons have brilliant eye sight due to its binocular vision. As chameleons are adapted to live on trees, their foot has become specialized to clamp the brunch which become awkward when it comes to walking on the ground. Chameleons have most remarkable body colour variation power among the lizards. They can change colour almost instantly. Body colour variation happens in response to light, heat, background and emotional state. Even the tail of a chameleon is remarkable. Its tail is prehensile. When needed it can work as an extra limb. chameleons actually uses its tail in support with hind legs to reach out and extend its striking distance.

Overall it has such a comic appearance and its behavior compliments its look so fantastically that it became my second favorite lizard of all.

At birth Indian Chameleon is 50mm long. The longest recorded adult is 375mm. Mating occurs in the months of August. Egg laying occurs in October. Incubation period varies from 82 days to 9 months.

Russells Viper Rescued

Extraordinary feats can be achieved in two ways, either you’re real brave or real dumb. And I have witnessed something like that..

Previous Sunday, a friend told me,” hey! Didn’t you hear? Somebody had caught a juvenile rock python in a medical store.” And that happens to be near the place where I generally hang out with friends. So I rushed to the place to check out the buzz. But what I saw was unbelievable. A little Russells Viper was hissing inside a plastic jar!!!

The jar was ventilated at the top portion by some small holes. So I figured out that they somehow captured it, put it inside the jar and made the holes for air circulation. That was a relief seeing people becoming aware about conservation. Because what I have witnessed till now is that people kill snake at the first opportunity. But what was more amusing was the expression on the face of the man when I told him that it was no Rock Python, rather it’s a extremely venomous Russells Viper. He was stunned. He said in disbelief, “how the hell did I capture it??”

It was a very beautiful, lively and healthy snake. I was too willing to have it for relocation. ‘cause that way I will be able to take some snaps of it at the time of releasing. But they said they had already called the Forest Dept. and the dept instructed them to hold the snake for the day as it was Sunday. They will come on Monday and take custody of the snake. The people from the medical store were okey with it. So I decided not to interfere with the workings of Forest Dept. but at the time of leaving I told them that if they for any reason don’t want to keep the snake anymore, I will be more than happy to help them deliver the snake to the Forest dept as I have contacts in there.

After that day, I completely forgot about the incident. On Friday evening, one of my friends who were related with the medical store asked me to take the snake. I was surprised ,” haven’t the officials taken the snake?” He said that not even a single phone call from them in the whole week. So in the next morning I bought the snake home and the next day released it in a suitable place.


Now what was most unnerving about the whole thing was the role of the Forest Dept. They are supposed to be there for the protection of wildlife and increasing awareness among people and here a snake is confined inside a small jar for a long week without food and water and fellow people are living uneasily around it. From this experience, the man who bothered to capture the snake alive and call the Forest Dept. would ever do the same again?? ‘cause now he knows the Dept. wouldn’t come and it will only increase his trouble. Instead of he will just kill and get rid of the snake. No law can protect wildlife if the people who are affected are made aware. Only because these kind of people who take extra pain-in-their-ass to save a life(wild) are there, the whole wildlife is not extinct altogether yet. So, three cheers for the one who saved a snake.

Natural history

Russells Viper is one of the most common snakes of India. Yet it is extra-ordinary in many ways. Russells Viper has got the largest fangs of all India vipers. The average size is about 16mm. Moreover it has two fangs on each side. The venom is haemotoxic i.e. it destroys blood and blood vessels. The common symptoms of biting are burning sensation and swelling at the bite site, extensive internal haemorrhage, pain, vomiting, bleeding from body orifices. Pressure drops significantly and pulse becomes weak. Though it is one of the four snakes responsible for most snake bite deaths in India, Russells Viper does not strike readily. It is generally sluggish and being heavily bodied viper, it is not reluctant to leave. So it inflates its body and hisses and when I say hisses, I mean hisses like a ‘pressure cooker’. It is so loud that if someone heard it he will never forget. Then the viper coils its body in a ‘S’ curve and sways its head side by side. And at last if all this warning and threat display falls in deaf ears, it strikes. And it strikes like a spring, faster than expected from a heavily bodied viper like this. It is usually nocturnal i.e. it hunts at night. So chances of bite are less. People often get bitten when they step on it at night. In daytime thorny bushes are its favorite resting place, so be careful. Although Russells Viper is venomous, it is not actually bad to protect them. The primary preys of it are rodents. Considering the damage rodents do to our crop production, it is actually doing a social work.

And a last word. May be Russells Viper is extremely venomous but timely and proper medical care can cure the victim properly. The death toll is high only because most of the people don’t seek proper medical attention in time from the lack of awareness.

Encounter with a comedian..

If there is one single snake that I wanted to see in natural habitat badly, that would be ……….I’ll let you guess. Anaconda? King cobra? Gabon viper? (Well, I wanted to see this one too)
No, its not. Believe it or not, it’s Common Vine snake. Seriously, I’m not joking. Because there is a specimen in my own backyard which pretty much everyone of my family have seen except me, ‘cause whenever I look at the picture of it, I say to myself, “man, where did it got those snouts!!” I mean really, it is such a comic looking snake.

Now on this morning, it was a bit cloudy, I went out to a un-habitated place beside our river in a hope to capture some butterflies. I was looking for them every where but as my luck turned towards worse, I didn’t even find a single one. Suddenly a vine caught my attention. The area was thickly vegetated and was full of bushes and vines and creepers and all but this particular one on a low bush was different. Other vines have a shiny surface but this one has a matt surface. But then which vines have a matt finish that is because they have got tiny hair like growths on the surface which this one lacks. Now I got real closer and to my surprise found smooth scales on the surface.

Bingo!! I have found a snake. But what was it?? My heart was beating fast,” boy you have found what you wanted to see for years” but I have to be cautious, ‘cause it could be say a green pit viper for an example. So I followed the trail(the tail) into the bush only to find out a comic looking face welcoming me. Well, in that moment I thought so. It was a beautiful green snake. And it was huge, bigger than any of the vine snakes I have seen in Chennai Snake Park, around 4.5ft long.

As soon as I started to take pictures it was going away. So I had no choice but to grab its tail with one hand to stop it from escaping. But as I grabbed its tail it started a spectacular show. First it dilated its forebody. So, what was a smooth green snake now became a checkered maze of black and white with green. When further threatened, it opened it jaws, retracted its tongue and what I was seeing was a wide open pink mouth. And it also coiled itself in a sigmoid curve to strike at the least provocation. Though it gave me a spectacular opportunity for photography, it was clear that the sign it was displaying was,” KEEP YOUR A** OFF”.

When I released it, whosh! And it was gone. I mean it was so smooth in the action that hardly a leaf had moved. Good bye beautiful friend, see ya later…

Natural History

These snakes are of bright green above and light green below. A thin white line can be found on each side of this snake. It is a common snake of India except the North-East and Northern India. Average size of this snake is about 39 inch but it can reach upto 6ft. It is a diurnal snake meaning it roams about in daylight. Commonly found on low bushes and trees but rarely on ground. I actually saw one crossing a road and I bet if I had uploaded the video to youtube it would have been the funniest video. It is terrible on ground but it is so well adapted to trees that it will get support from the tiniest of twigs. Generally it is a gentle snake but can be quite fierce when captured and does a spectacular threatening display. It generally feeds on small mammals, birds, lizards, fish, frog etc.
It is from the group lacepede meaning rear fanged and is mildly venomous. The symptoms are quite like cobra venom but usually venom has no effect on human. Although secondary symptoms like swelling, numbness of the bitten area could appear.

how to differentiate between common Indian Krait and common Wolf snake

Yesterday when I was out in the evening, suddenly I got a call from home; my mother was yelling “there is a venomous snake in the house, come quick…”. So, I hurried back home only to find out that a common wolf snake was climbing the corner of our door. Everyone believed that it’s a very venomous snake and I should kill it instantly. After talking with them I found out that all they were talking about is of common Indian Krait. It took me a sweating discussion to convince them that it is not a venomous snake; it’s a non-venomous common Wolf snake. Actually people often mistake these two snakes for each other.

COMMON INDIAN KRAIT

COMMON WOLF SNAKE

But is it that much difficult to identify them separately? Absolutely not. One can distinguish a venomous snake from a non-venomous one by opening its mouth and checking the fangs, though its not an easy process. But there is a catch, common Wolf snake’s front teeth of upper and lower jaws are larger which are often mistaken for fangs. So finally the question comes to, ‘how does a lay person identify a non-venomous common Wolf snake from a venomous common Krait snake??

• Firstly, there is a size difference. Adult common Wolf snake can be upto 2.5ft of length but specimens larger than 2 ft are rare. Whereas an adult common Krait snake can be upto 6ft long but the average is 3.5ft. Then the fact arises that a common Wolf snake can be mistaken for a sub-adult common Krait snake. So we come to next difference.


• The white stripes of a common Wolf snake are a bit broader than the common Krait snakes and also the stripes are bordered with somewhat darker scales than the body. Moreover the stripes of common Krait snakes are paired, whereas common Wolf snakes’ stripes are not paired. The most prominent difference from the point of stripes is that common Wolf snakes have got a broad stripe on their neck which is absent in common Krait snakes.
  
  


• Thirdly, the body shape of common Krait snake is somewhat triangular and it is ridged along its vertebral line. In common Wolf snake, the body is roundish and there is no ridge formation.
  
  


• Lastly, the scales of common Krait snake along its vertebral line are hexagonal, means six-sided, and larger which differentiates these from other body scales (in the picture it is actually a banded krait, but this feature is common in all type of kraits.). But we don’t see such phenomena in case of common Wolf snakes. All the scales on its back are of same size and shape. And this one is the most important one.
  
  

So by following these simple points one can easily distinguish between the common Wolf and common Krait and I won’t have to hurried back home for a false alarm. ;-)


To learn about the difference between Russell's Viper and Indian Rock Python.

To learn about the difference between Indian Rat Snake and Cobra.

Olive Ridley hatching in Orissa

‘ARIBADA’ it may sound wired to some people but it is one of the most extra-ordinary incidents that happen in our natural world. Every year thousands of Olive Ridley turtles come to 3 beaches of Orissa, India in the month of January for laying eggs. This is called ‘Aribada’.

The eggs hatch in the month of May. This year I and 2 other folks went there to see the hatchlings. We get off the train at Chandrapur and from there it was a half an hour journey into the interior of Orissa. The beach of Puranabanda is a very remote beach far from the chaos of tourist and all that. It is actually a fishing village of Rushikulya. We stayed with our host society ‘Rushikulya Sea Turtle Protection Committee’. There is no other option for staying overnight for now. The people there are very much friendly.

In the next day morning we went to the beach to see the turtles hatch. The beach had protective fencing put up by the Forest Dept. When we went inside there was nothing. One or two people like us, some small local boys and three four Forest Dept. workers were there. But one thing was numerous, the crows. And in-spite of the fencing, 2-3 dogs have entered the area but no sign of the turtles. So I started to follow the dogs. Suddenly I saw a dog picked up something dark from the ground. I rushed to the area and oh! there it is, a small baby turtle. And as I was concentrating on the single turtle, several others have come out of the nest. That was the start. After that we found numerous nests from where the babies were emerging. They were just every where. But just near the tide line where the nests got exposed by the sand erosion of the sea waves, the eggs were not so lucky. More over there were predator everywhere, crows, black kite, brahminy kite, stray dogs, crabs all were ready to make a feast with the turtles. For that reason the forest dept has hired workers to collect the hatchlings as soon as they emerge from the nest and release them at the sea shore to minimize the chance of predation. But the solution is not very perfect, there we meet a researcher from USA who was worried seeing this technique. In her words the babies imprint the location of the nesting beach in their head at the time when they crawl from nest to sea. So if they don’t get a chance to crawl they might not remember the location. What we came to know about the mortality rate of these turtles is that only one in a thousand survives to become adult!!!! Well, now they have emerged from the nest, immediately they start to crawl towards sea. Generally they hatch in the night. So, how they navigate to the sea?? It is also interesting. They follow the reflection of the light of the stars on the sea. Experiment shows that they follow any source of light. That is why any kind of light is banned on these beaches in the night, because they can mislead the hatchlings. They may look like clumsy but they are pretty fast crawlers. When they reach the se shore they are washed away with the waves into the sea. There they began the real journey of there life. When they will mature, the female Olive Ridleys will come back to this same beach to lay there eggs only if the beach is still there for them. It is our responsibility to save this habitat and the turtles, which is already claimed as critically endangered if we want to witness this wonder of nature times and times again.