King cobra sighting at 2,400m sets new altitude record for the species

King cobra sighting at 2,400m sets new altitude record for the species

Prashant.Jha@timesgroup.com

Nainital:04.09.2020

Forest officials in Uttarakhand have for the first time recorded sightings of king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) at heights of 2,200m to 2,400m in the Himalayas, a new altitude record for the species which has led to several experts calling for a detailed study on the how the world’s largest venomous snake was thriving at such elevations.

The observations, part of a report prepared by the Uttarakhand forest department’s research wing in Haldwani, a copy of which is with TOI, put the species’ habitat range as varying from 400m in Terai region to up to 2,400m in the hills. The report said that such a wide variation in habitat for a cold-blooded or ectothermic species was “unusual” and demands scientific investigation.

Reptiles are cold-blooded, meaning they depend on external heat sources for thermoregulation and generally prefer warmer climates. But during a ninemonth study, forest officials found nests of the snakeclassified as ‘vulnerable’ in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list— at heights of up to 2,400m in Mukteshwar (Nainital district) where winter temperatures are close to freezing and snowfall is common.

Chief conservator of forests (research) Sanjeev Chaturvedi, who led the study, said that the research involved field investigations as well as interviews with local residents. “This is the highest altitude at which a king cobra has ever been sighted,” Chaturvedi told TOI.

A study published in the journal Herpetology Notes in 2018 authored by Jignasu Dolia, a researcher at the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India, had mentioned the highest recorded altitude for the king cobra—India’s national reptile— at 2,303m after a hatchling was found in the Indian Veterinary Research Institute’s (IVRI) campus in Mukteshwar in 2012. The species has been sighted at 1,840m in Sikkim, 1,170m in Mizoram and 1,830m in the Nilgiris.

(Inputs by Shivani Azad)