A very rare Red Coral Kukri snake was spotted in Uttarakhand’s US Nagar district and rescued by forest officials. This is the third time that the rare snake has been spotted in the hill state this year. Earlier, it was spotted twice in Nainital district, while on Sunday it was spotted in Dineshpur area of US Nagar district said forest officials said.
According to forest officials, the rare snake was first spotted in Lakhimpur Kheri area of Uttar Pradesh in 1936 from where it got its scientific name ‘Oligodon kheriensis’.
The suffix ‘kukri’ in its name comes from Kukri or curved knife of the Gorkhas as its teeth are curved like the blade of the Kukri.
Uttarakhand forest department officials rescued the snake from a local resident’s house in US Nagar where it was hiding and released it in the nearby forest area.
Abhilasha Singh, divisional forest officer (DFO) of Tarai Central said Rudrapur forest range team got a call regarding a snake rescue on Sunday afternoon from one Triloki, a resident of Jagdishpur village in Dineshpur area.
“When the forest team went there and rescued the snake, they realised it was the rare Red Coral snake. It was hiding near a tree in the courtyard of the house. After the rescue, the snake was released in a nearby forest,” she said.
This is for the third time the rare snake has been spotted this year in the state. On September 5, and August 7, this snake species was rescued from the same house belonging to one Kavindra Koranga, a resident of Kurriya Khatta village in Bindukhatta area of Nainital district.
According to Vipul Mourya, a wildlife expert from Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII), the Red Coral Kukri has been reported earlier in 2015 in Surai forest range of Terai East forest division and in 2014, near the Uttar Pradesh border but then it was found dead.
The Red Coral Kukri snake is listed in schedule 4 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. It is found in red and bright orange colours. This non-venomous snake is nocturnal and feeds on earthworms, insects and larvae.
