The Gazetteers Department

The district is not very rich faunastically and this includes snakes also. However, the rich black soil and the river regions of the south in the district are areas where rats abound and one does get a large number of Cobra and Rat Snakes, with some mingling of kraits. The incidence of snake bite in the district is more in the south specially during summer months.

Non-poisonous.

Typhlops Braminus.-Locally this snake is known as " Kadu ". It is small, thin, blind and has imbricate scales both on the dorsal and ventral surfaces, often times it is mistaken to be a biggish earthworm. The snake feeds on decaying matter and insect grubs. Many a times it digs into heaps of decaying vegetation in gardens and lays eggs before monsoon.

Eryx conicus.-This local snake " DUTONDYA " is believed to have two heads and moving on two sides during the year. This is not true. The snake has a very blunt and rough tail which at times is hurled at a victim. It grows to about three feet and is often mistaken to be an young one of a python because of its chocolate colour on which are present grey reticulated markings. The belly scales do not reach the far ends of the ventral surface, and the head with tiny eyes look like a tapering tail. It often remains buried up and dug up in soil and shuns light. This snake feeds on small frogs and tiny mammals and when badly provoked it hurls at the victim and tries to bite viciously. It lays eggs before monsoon.

Python Molurus.-This is the local " AJGAR " snake found at some watershed areas in the hilly regions of Arvi tahsil. It is not a very common snake. When full grown it measures upto eighteen feet in length and two feet in girth at the widest. It is resin brown in colour with faint sky blue variegated markings on the dorsal surface. The sides of the head are pink and a lavcent shaped mark is situated from neck to middle of head. This snake has pointed teeth and some of these are curved for retention of the hold on the prey. The snake attacks the victim, which are normally small mammals, holds them by the jaw and coils round its body to strangulate it to death. Once dead the victim is pressed into the mouth and gradually swallowed. After one big meal, it may not need food for some days, when it will lie quietly near rocks and water sheds. It hisses loudly and many people believe that it can draw a victim by an inward draft of its breath. This is incorrect. It is a harmless snake, which is many a time hunted by wild tribes for food. The eggs laid before monsoon are fairly big in size and are many a time consumed by some.

Natrix Piscator.-This is the common " Diwad " found all over the district near water accumulations. It is a very swift snake that feeds on frogs and fishes and keeps away from human habitation. Fishermen fishing in fresh water often come across this harmless snake that grows to four feet and is olive green with black checkerboard markings especially in the hind region. The head has black stripes and black spots are present in the neck region. The under surface is white with scales touching the two ends of the sides. Many snake charmers freely handle this snake that lays a number of eggs that hatch just before the monsoon.

Natrix Stolata.-" Naneti " or " Sitakilat " is the name given to this snake found very frequently even on road sides during rainy days. It is buff coloured with two grey longitudinal lines at the sides and white dots on the anterior region. It is a fairly swift moving snake that could easily be handled even by children. Many people keep it as domestic pet, fed on pieces of meat, tiny frogs and some insects. It is an egg laying snake that lays them in the months of March-April. It is not commonly met with in other months than monsoons.

Pytas Mucosus.-This is a very common snake of the plains locally known as Dhaman. Yellowish ventrally and at sides, it has black edged scales dorsally in a set pattern especially in the tail region. There may be grey marks near them. The head bears black streaks and spot extending upto the neck region. It grows to ten feet, is very agile and is seen to go up a tree with ease. It feeds on rats, and is thus found in areas where rodents abound. While climbing trees or anchoring stumps it ties a scout-type knot by its tail to the supporting surfaces and emits foul smell in the area. It also gives a very shrill kite-bird type of noise when cornered. There is a popular belief that this is the female of a cobra and that this snake stays with a cobra. Both these are erroneous beliefs. It lays a large number of eggs during March in moist soil. The eggs are blunt at both the ends and bigger than fowl eggs. A large number of these eggs are dug out and consumed by local people.

Dryophis Nasutus.-Locally known as " Harantol " this long parrot green snake with yellow belly and neck has grey markings on the body and stays on trees with its head suspended from twigs and this gives the impression of a branch hanging from the tree. The head is elliptical with fairly pointed rostrum at the base of which are dazzling eyes with a vertical pupil. Persons going up pipal trees in the forest hilly areas have seen it on the tree hiding in the green foliage and by the time it is encountered the snake head may be near the human eyes. It is at such times that people believe it to cause a hypnotic influence on the viewer. It is a harmless snake feeding on small birds, but its bite causes some feeble reactions.

Boiga Trigonata.-This cat snake with black stripes on the neck attempts to raise its head from the neck region, giving an impression (when viewed from sides) that it is a cobra about to raise its hood. The body is buff coloured with black and white small longitudinal stripes on the dorsal surface. It is a vicious snake that tries to imitate a cobra. It lays eggs that hatch during the months preceding the monsoon.

Lycodon Aulicus.-This garden wolf snake is seen near human habitations feeding on lizards, skinks, small frogs and tiny mammals. It grows to two and a half feet in length, is buff coloured and has grey and brown broken lines in variegated patterns on the dorsal surface.

Another variety of wolf snake " bligodon venustus " is seen with black cross stripes on a pale grey body. Both these snakes are seen in the cooler regions of Arvi tahsil. They are oviparous.

Poisonous.

Naja-Naja.-The common cobra is locally known as " Nag ", " Dhomi" (when black) or " Gehuwa " (when brown). This snake always has a hood on which may be present a bionocallate mark dorsally and three faint black stripes with a pair of black dots ventrally. The dorsal mark may be absent in some varieties but the ventral markings and the hood are always present in a cobra. To make sure about the. identity it is desirable to see that the snake has three scales behind the eye, the second supralabial scale touching the nasal part and the eye and there is a triangular wedge scale between the fourth and the fifth infra-labial scale on a cobra snake.

This is the most common poisonous snake of the area which is venerated and often times not killed. It is worshipped on Nagpanchmi day when milk and popped corn is given to the snake. This snake does not drink milk as food. It may touch it by its tongue and consume some as a liquid to quench thirst; nor does it ever eat the popped rice.

Cobra-bite cases are brought near Hanuman temple and chants are raised to save the victim. Those patients who are bitten by non-poisonous snakes or in whom a cobra has given a sub-lethal dose would be saved by chants. If the snake has given a lethal dose of venom only an anti-venin injection given in time can save the patient. The poison of a cobra is neurotoxic and the reactions start six to eight minutes after the bite. The patient begins to loose sensations at the extremities and he may die due to paralysis of the muscles that lead to failure of breathing.

A cobra feeds on rats and frogs and lays upto 60 eggs which hatch just before monsoon. A young cobra has a hood and is as poisonous as the old one. The lethal dose of cobra poison for a normal sized man is 12 milligrams, while a cobra can give on an average 200 mgm at a bite.

Bungarus Coeruleus.-This is the common krait snake, locally known as " Ghoda karayat " or Manyar. It is steel blue with white cross stripes all over the body. It has a row of hexagonal dorsal scales and the anal scales are complete. These two characteristics distinguish it from the wolf snakes.

This is a timid snake living in between bricks and other crevices. It moves out in the darks and feeds on lizards and mice as well as other tiny snakes. The venom is neurotoxic in reaction and the toxicity is higher than that of a cobra. The lethal dose for a normal man is only six milligrams and only an anti-venin can save the victim. It lays eggs and often times eats its own young ones.

Vipera Russelli.-This viper brown in colour and with three rows of deep brown elliptical marks inhabits regions with deep vegetation.

It has a triangular head bearing tiny scales and it hisses loudly and continuously. The fangs are nearly half an inch long and lie touched up at the sides of the mouth. The injury inflicted is very painful and the swelling spreads all over the limbs. The poison is lacmotoxic. This snake feeds on small mammals.

Echis Carinatus.-This snake is not very common and is often known as " Dhulnagin ". It is a small snake growing to a length of 18 inches and is characterised by an arrow mark on the head and variegated brown markings on a deep brown body. It moves in a side winding way emitting a noise that comes out of rubbing the serrated side scales. It is very ferrocious and can strike a victim one foot above the ground. The poison given out may not be a lethal dose and as such the victim does not die but there are side reactions and the victim starts bleeding from nose, eyes, kidney, gums and shows symptoms of putrefaction at the site of bite. The victim then succumbs to the side reactions only.

This snake is encountered more during rains when it has just laid young ones. The only sure remedy against its bite is a specific anti-venin.

TOP