Deadly affair (common indian krait)

On this evening, I was browsing internet in my room, suddenly I heard some people talking about some snake. It seemed like somebody have spotted some snake. So I grabbed a light and rushed to the spot. 3-4 people have gathered in front of the house beside our house. They told me that someone saw a black snake when she was entering the house and came out of the house. I thought it would be common wolf snake as always. I entered the house. It had a small varandah at the entrance and then there is the gate is the gate of the bedroom. One side of the varandah was filled with coconut, what an ideal place for a snake, and the other side had some bricks stored. After a while, fortunately i found the snake in the brick stack.


I was surprised. I never imagined it to be a krait and there it was a common Indian krait waiting behind the bricks. This is my first krait sighting. I quickly told the people to get a strong stick and get some more light. I secured the head with stick and was about to catch the snake, suddenly a over-enthusiast man showed up with a big log in his hand. He didn’t hear anybody and straight tried to kill the snake. I was in an awkward situation. With one hand I was holding the stick with which I had secured the head of the snake and with the other hand I was trying to cover the blows made with the big log. The most terrifying thing was that the snake is no ordinary snake, it is the most venomous snake of asia. After a few blows the man paused for a second and I quickly captured the snake and started walking straight to my house. I put it in a plastic jar and kept it in a secure place.


Common Indian krait or Bungarus caeruleus is a nocturnal snake. In the daytime it is a very lazy and timid snake but at night a sharp contrast in behaviour can be seen. It becomes very active, alert and dangerous. In the daytime it generally rests in termite mounds, rodent burrows, stacks of bricks, rubbles or even inside household items like rolled up carpets. This snake is so well adopted in various habitats that it is found in almost all of India except Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh. It is mainly found in fields, low scrub jungles and even in marshy lands. It is also found near human habitation and often enters inside houses. This particular behaviour makes it more dangerous. Some time people get bitten unknowingly when they are asleep. Their bite is not as painful as cobra or viper bite but it is far more virulent than the two (it is 15 times more potent than the cobra). Its venom is both neurotoxic and heamotoxic. It is the MOST VENEMOUS snake of India. Bite from this snake must be treated at hospital with antivenom serum. Otherwise death will come in 5 to 12 hours. Symptoms are like cobra bite, drooping eyelid, severe abdominal pain, vomiting and respiratory problem. Usually the cause of death is respiratory failure.

It is a cannibalistic snake. It usually eats other snake often of the same species. It also eats frogs, lizards and mouse. It attains a maximum length of 1.73 m but average size is 1.2m. the specimen i caught was around 1m in length. May be due to their cannibalistic nature at the time of mating, they first carry out an examination of each other and then settles down together. Mating occurs in February- march. Kraits also stay with the eggs like the cobras.

After a few days I planned to release the Krait. But finding a suitable place was a real headache. There was no suitable place remote enough to release the snake. I had to travel 30km to find a place for the releasing. every day more and more lands are being converted into farmland, commercial land or residential area. Snakes and other life forms are finding it hard to find an unused patch of land which they can use as their safe refuse.

**One interesting fact I would like to mention. On my journey of 60 km, I found atleast 14 dead snakes, all are road kill, run over by cars. 6 of the snakes are olive keelback water snake, 4 are chekered keelback water snake, 2 are buff stripped keelback land snake, 1 is a rat snake and the other one was not in identifiable condition.

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.