Pune: New snake species

Pune: New snake species discovered in Western Ghats

Pune: New snake species discovered in Western Ghats

A team of researchers from UK and India has announced the discovery of a new snake in the Western Ghats recently. The new snake has been named as Khaire’s Black Shieldtail after Neelimkumar Khaire, the founder of Katraj Snake Park in Pune and the Indian Hereptological Society.

The team included researchers from the Natural History Museum (NHM), London, UK; National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore, India, the Indian Herpetological Society (IHS), Pune, India and the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). First author Dr David Gower and Dr Mark Wilkinson from NHM Ashok Captain of IHS/BNHS and Varad Giri a post doctoral fellow of NCBS constituted the team.

Giri said this would be the first such discovery after a span of 144 years. “This snake belongs to a family of Uropeltidae. It is a burrower and lives underground," he said.