Living Fossil, Himalayan Newt

This year Durga Puja was a bit different. I didn’t go to pandels to see goddess Durga but went to a small mountain village to see an animal which is the only representative of its family in india. It is Himalayan Newt. Though it is not uncommon in Darjeeling Himalayas, we choose Namthing Lake as there is an established conservation site of Himalayan Newts, which greatly increases our chance of seeing one.

When we reached Namthing Pokhri, it was raining. Rain may be a disturbance for us humans but being an amphibian, it is a happy time for Himalayan Newts. We searched the lake for it but with no success. In the next day we went to the site again but this time we didn’t took chance and asked the local people for help. This time after a few minutes of searching, yes, it was there. To be truthful, in the first impression it looked very ugly.

Himalayan Newt, Tylototriton verrucosus, is an amphibian. It also has a tail. So, it looks like a hybrid between a lizard and a toad. It has a moist, warty skin, a laterally compressed tail for swimming and well developed limbs for walking. Its total length is from 130-200mm of which almost half the length is tail. It has a dark brown coloration which helps it to stay hidden in the submerged vegetation during the day. But in the breeding time the males sport a orange red belly color, which they use to attract females. It is a nocturnal animal so it comes out of water in the night to feed on the ground. It generally eats insects, earth worms, tadpoles etc. in India it is found in  North Bengal, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.

Though it is a lower animal, it too has an elaborate courtship ritual. First the male shows its orange red belly color to the approaching female. Then the ritual begins. The male also calls like frogs and toads but in a lower pitch. After the ritual male grabs the female by the foreleg and stay mounted for an hour. Male then deposit a bag of sperm which the female picks up with her anal opening. Then the female lays eggs in the submerged vegetation of a stagnant pool.

One more interesting thing about this animal is its regeneration power. We all have seen how geckos lose their tail and regenerate but Himalayan Newt have gone further and can regenerate even a bitten limb.

Like all the other amphibians Himalayan Newt also hibernates in the winter season to hide from the cold weather. It generally buries itself into the soil 6” to several feet deep. But this cannot save it from the other enemies like habitat destruction, use of pesticide or the fungal infection. So the future does not look  very bright for this little creature which came to earth even before the dinosaurs.

Jumping Chicken (Frog Meat Trade)

A few days back when I was browsing Facebook, I stumbled upon an interesting cartoon. It was about frog meat industry. I got interested and tried to find out more. A little bit of searching and reading brought out some anxious facts.

image courtesy: http://www.savethefrogs.com

In contrary to my belief that only tribal and rural people eats frogs, it is a delicacy among the people of 1st world countries. Even they have depleted their frog population so much that they are forced to import it from third world countries of Latin America and South-east Asia. Currently Indonesia is the biggest exporter of frog legs. It exports about 142 million frogs each year and about 7times of this number is consumed in the country. Thailand, China, Malaysia, Brazil and several other countries also exports frog legs. Frog legs are popular in south east Asian countries but they are in huge demand in countries like France, Italy, USA etc. even Mr. Barak Obama was seen eating frog legs in a party. This demand has resulted in the disappearance of many frog species and several other species have become rare. A few countries have set up frog farms to supply the demand but still most of the frogs come from the wild.

image courtesy: Getty images

What is the actual impact of this? A few years back India was the biggest exporter of frog legs. This trade was so popular that frogs were called jumping chicken. But India has banned this trade in 1987. Bangladesh has also banned it in 1990. They must have good reasons to so. This frog meat trade does not affect all frog species. It only targets the bigger species. In India, the targeted species were Indian Pond Frog(Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis), Indian Bull Frog(Hoplobatrachus tigerinus), Jerdon’s Bull Frog(Hoplobatrachus crassus). Frogs are a natural insecticide. They eat a whole lot of insects, molluscs and other things that damages our crop production. And the bigger the frog, the more insect it can eat. Not only in frog stage, in the tadpole stage also it helps us by cleaning up the water. Now when we picked up frogs from the environment, the insect population multiplied considerably and crop damage also have increased. The problem became so severe in India that the revenue lost due to crop damage far exceeded the revenue generated through frog leg exporting. Same thing has happened with Bangladesh and same thing will happen with the other countries too. Frogs are an important part of our eco-system and removing them from it is not a wise decision.

Indian Bull Frog

15yrs after banning the trade, frog population in India has revived itself and the species are not in danger anymore. But thanks to Mr. Manjunath Sullolli an image from Goa brings out the question again, “has the trade really stopped in India?” Actually as long as there will be demand in the market, some people will always be ready to supply. If only we can change our taste for frog meat, the frogs can really be saved.

image courtesy: Mr. Manjunath Sullolli

10 points to avoid snakebite

As the rainy season is approaching, the interaction with snakes is about to increase for everyone. But as it is not desirable for most of us, a simple few steps could help us avoid them altogether. It will also save many lives of both men and snakes.

Conflicts with snakes mainly happen at two places, inside the house and outside the house. Let us first understand why snakes enter houses. Snakes enter mainly for two reasons, to hunt and to take shelter. Snakes often enter houses to hunt for rats, mice and toads that take refuse in our houses. Another reason is taking shelter. Snakes, like other reptiles go into hibernation, i.e. a long period of inactivity, for 2-3 months in the winter season. So they look for places where they can safely hibernate and keep out from the winter chill. The same thing happens in summer too. To beat the heat they try to find a cool shaded place to aestivate. In nature snakes seek out places like underground tunnels, under fallen trees or brunches, under big stones etc. human homes offer perfect alternatives of these in the form of cluttered corners, unused rooms, under the stairs, behind the almirah etc.


And out side the house conflicts happen when people accidentally step on them or go near them. Snakes generally hunt in the morning and evening when the temperature of the atmosphere is moderate. In the noon, when the temperature is high snakes take rest under dry leaves, under fallen logs, inside holes in tree trunks, under the exposed roots etc.



So if we sum up the points, it will go like these.

1. Free our homes from rats and toads by using poison, traps, hand picking etc.
2. Clean the house and neighborhood and see that no garbage is staying for too long like pile of bricks, heap of firewood etc.
3. Snakes don’t like the smell of carbolic acid, bleaching powder etc. so using these around houses can reduce incoming of snakes.
4. People generally get bitten at night because they don’t see the snake in dark and step on it accidentally. So using a flashlight in snake infested areas in the night will reduce snake bite.
5. Generally people get bitten on the foot. So using a ankle high shoe can reduce snake bite also.

6. As snakes take rest under exposed tree roots, under heap of dry leaves etc, we should be careful when passing them or stepping on them.
7. In the harvesting season snakes gather around the fields to hunt rats because rats gather in great numbers to collect food grain. So be careful when roaming in the field especially in the harvesting season.
8. Snakes generally bite only when it is cornered. So if you accidentally come near a snake, give it room to escape and it will escape at the first chance.
9. Most ground dwelling snakes don’t have very good eyesight; they feel our presence through vibration on ground. So in front of a snake, if we stay still, it wont be able to recognise our presence and eventually it will go.
10. Snakes like the warmth of our body and blankets and hide in our beds. As a result, many people get bitten while they are sleeping and if the bite is from a Krait, you wont even feel the bite. So always check the carefully before going to bed and use a mosquito net.

You see these 10 points are no rocket science. They are just general awareness that we need to maintain. And you will be surprised to see the result of it. It will surely lower the chance of getting bitten by a snake. So keep safe and enjoy monsoon.

Tragic Hero (Ornate Flying Snake)

People fear snakes. And writers have manipulated this reaction from ancient times. As tragedy is more interesting than comedy, fear is also more interesting than love. So writers have stitched false information about snakes in their stories to create a fearful atmosphere. One of the classic examples is the ‘Manasamangal’.

It is a classic Bengali story of a businessman and his family who was involved in a conflict with the goddess of snakes, ‘Manasa’. This story tells that Manasa sent a very deadly, very venomous snake, ‘Kalnagini’ to kill the youngest son of that businessman. Now as most of the people don’t read science journals but they have read or heard this story at least once in West Bengal, they regard Kalnagini as a very dangerous snake capable of killing human being with its venom. And I can’t blame them for that. Nobody has ever told them otherwise.

Now what the truth really is?? What is this infamous Kalnagini? Kalnagini or Ornate Flying Snake (Chrysopelea ornata) is a very beautiful and handsome snake. As like every other tree snake, it is also slim and long, average length 1.2m . Overall coloration is greenish yellow or pale green above with black cross bands. Scales also have black borders. Every alternate cross band has reddish or orange patches in vertebral area. The head is black with white and red patches. This is a diurnal and arboreal snake, meaning it is active in daytime and it prefers trees and bushes than grounds. It generally feeds on frogs, lizards, small mammals, birds and even bats. Ornate Flying Snake is not very choosy in its diet and eats whatever it can capture.


And about its deadliness, Ornate Flying Snake has elongated, grooved teeth for delivering the venom. It falls under the category of ‘Rear Fanged Snake’ because its elongated teeth are at the rear of its jaws unlike other venomous snakes which have these at the front. Most importantly, it has very mild venom to subdue its prey but which is totally ineffective against the human. IT CAN NOT KILL A HUMAN. Only side effects like allergic effects, numbness of the bitten area etc can happen.

Being non-venomous or correctly say mildly-venomous does not make it any less interesting. It has a very unique characteristic which only a few other snake poses. It can’t fly but it can glide in air 50m-100m depending upon the height it jumps from. It flattens its body, hollows out ventrally and jumps at an angle with respect to ground. Flattened body helps it to glide through the air and by swinging its tail, it can control the direction of glide. Isn’t that a great achievement for an animal which doesn’t even have hands or legs?

Now come back to the story of Manasamangal again. I would not say the writer didn’t know it is a mildly-venomous snake. Rather he used this snake for this particular feature. No venomous snake would serve his purpose. In the story, after the youngest son got bitten by Kalnagini, his wife took him to heaven and pleased gods by singing and dancing to return his husband’s life. What if she didn’t do it and stayed home? It would have brought the same result. Her husband would not die in either case. You see why I said the writer choose this snake purposefully? Because if any venomous snake had bitten him, even the gods would not be able to save him without the antivenin. And this also the reason why snake charmers can successfully heal people from snake bite sometimes.

Super cobra in the making...

A few days back I went to a friend’s house but she was not home. So I was chatting with her mother. As the topic of snakes came along, she told me a very fascinating story.
2-3 years back, one morning one snake was spotted in their locality. There was a medium sized water tank with water and the snake was in it. When they identified it as cobra, they called a snake charmer. Even he could not catch the snake because of the water, so people decided to kill it. After beating the snake severely with sticks and rods, they put the snake on ground. And suddenly the cobra regurgitated another snake. And guess what, that was a cobra too. The first cobra was approx 4.5ft long and second one from 3-3.5ft.


Now this was interesting for me because I have not heard of cobras feeding on cobras or any other snake previously. So I started to look for material on this subject. King cobras and Kraits are known to feed on snakes but could not find anything related to cobras. Then suddenly I stumbled upon a image in an online group, Indian Snakes. It not only proved the previous story, the comments gave a whole array of information.


The photo was originally posted by Mr Rajeevan Shri in another group DiversityIndia. And this was the supporting text “While travelling through country side around Quilon found this. People beaten the cobra very badly it was dying when the pic was taken' cobra was about 5feet long &viper about 3.5feet long. Taken 1998 Dec.” Now when I went through the comments I saw that one person says that he has seen a cobra feeding on a daboia before and this is the second time he is seeing this. Another person says that he saw a cobra vomit a daboia before while his friend was rescuing the cobra. And one person added even more interesting fact. He has seen cobra feeding on rat snake and even a rat snake feeding on trinket snake.

These could be some very unusual individual incidents or these could be showing a trend. The snakes, especially the cobra may have started to change their feeding behaviour. An easy conclusion could be drawn that the scarcity of prey species have forced them to target different species but their main prey, the rats have flourished with the human very well and are not scarce. May be inter species competition is forcing the cobras to be superior than the daboia and feed on that species. Well, these are just my imagination and the real reason could only be found by scientifically investigating the whole matter.

cry of the crocodile ( Gharial)

This time when i visited Alipur Zoo, i again met with these magnificent reptiles called ‘Gharial’. Though i have already seen them at Madras Crocodile Bank a few years back but they don’t fail to amaze me with their uniqueness. They have a typical long and slender snout that no other crocodile have. Moreover they have a swelling present at the top of male’s snout which people relate to ‘ghara’ or earthen pot. That is why it is called grarial. They pose no threat to human still they are endangered and rare in throughout their home range.

Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is the oldest of the crocodiles. They were found in the river systems of Ganges, Irrawardy, Indus and Brahmaputra within the borders of India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. But currently they have only two viable breeding populations at National Chambal Sanctuary in India and Chitwan National Park in Nepal. Other few fragmented population can be found in a few places but they don’t breed. Several factors are pushing them towards extinction like poaching, egg harvesting etc but none is as destructive as habitat destruction. These crocodiles are typical habitant of rivers. Building dams on rivers dries out the river in downstream side of the dam. As this creates a shortage in fish population, the gharials face starvation as they are totally dependent on fishes. They occasionally take turtles, birds or corpses but fish is their main prey. Even among fishes, gharials prey upon predatory fishes. Where ever the gharial population has decreased in size, local Fishermen have witnessed a decreased in their fish catch as increase in predatory fish decreases the number of edible fishes. In the upstream section of the dam the problem is different. Here water floods a huge area submerging the sand banks and river islands crucial for gharial nesting. Though gharial population have increased in number from 240 in 1974 to approx 2500 now but still there is a possibility of extinction as there are only 20 breeding males are in wild. Males reach maturity at a length of 3m and an age of 13-14yrs. Females reach maturity at an earlier age, at 2.5m length and 8.5yrs of age. They can reach a maximum length of 6.75m and have lived for 29 yrs in captivity.

A captive breeding and rearing program have been initiated. Gharial eggs are hatched in artificial hatcheries and then released back into wild habitats. This is seeing a bit of success but without protecting its habitat it won’t take us long to witness the extinction of another marvellous animal.

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.