[kbalii]

Originally Posted by madan80

IIRC - the poision is created only in the fangs and the sacs - so if you run over the snake you might end up getting blood on the tyres.

Or whatever it was trying to digest...

[badboyscad]

Posting some pics of snakes(commonly seen in tamilnadu) :

Branded Krait aka kattuviriyaan in tamil (highly venomous):


Saw scaled viper aka surutai viriyaan in tamil (venomous):


Russell's viper aka kannaadi viriyaan in tamil (venomous):


Rat snake aka saara paambu in tamil (non venomous but can give a nasty bite):

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

but making out a krait or viper from a harmless snake is the tough part.

As I've mentioned in one of my previous posts, venomous snakes usually exhibit design patterns or nice colors running on their bodies.

[csentil]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Actually there are only 4 major species of venomous snakes in India. I read this from Romulus Whitaker's (Madras Snake Park) book when I was 15. Armed with the knowledge from this book, I was able to confront my granny regarding various snake mumbo-jumbo which is considered conventional wisdom.

The 4 major types are Cobra, King Cobra, Krait & Viper. There are no other venomous snakes in India. It is easy to recognize the first two. The remaining two takes some practice and sightings. The krait usually has bands, the viper generally has triangular head.

Sorry for the minor correction, Well the 4 common types (known as the Big Four of India) are the
Indian Cobra,
Krait,
Russell's Viper
and Saw Scaled Viper

The King is not included as they don't live close to human habitats (tropical rainforests and the like is what they prefer so far) and have not caused that many fatalities that the Big Four have caused. No offense to the King Cobra (basically he's the longest of the venomous snakes and also injects massive amount of venom when it strikes) but he's just not there coz he's not been a big killer of humans.

The Cobra's and Kraits are neurotoxic. Basically the venom affects the nervous system. They are faster reacting and will finally shutdown your breathing as your lungs will collapse. Krait's venom is more toxic than a cobra.

The Viper's are haemotoxic. They affect the blood vessels. Haemorrhage happens. It is extremely painful to say the least !

All these snake bites can be treated using a polyvalent antivenom that is available. Usually there use to be separate antivenoms for each type of snake but in India where recognizing the snake might be a problem, the solution is to use a polyvalent antivenom.

King Cobra antivenom is not generally available in India. Thailand is the place to procure it from as there have been almost nil cases of King cobra bites.

Note from the Team-BHP Support Staff : Do make sure that you provide the references/original source for every piece of material that has been taken from another website/publication, to give credit to the original author.

Source Added: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Four_(Indian_snakes)

[deepclutch]

Many Keralite Hindu castes especially Nairs got Sarpa Aaradhana(sarpa workship).this means a sarpa kaavu(a area around nair tharavad alloted for snakes) is the norm for most houses.Nairs here normally dont kill snakes.poisonous cobra are roaming in their courtyard without no threat.

Sarpa Kavu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

--
This may be the reason we found snakes in town areas too!not to say occasional driving over snakes in rural roads.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by badboyscad

Posting some pics of snakes(commonly seen in tamilnadu) : As I've mentioned in one of my previous posts, venomous snakes usually exhibit design patterns or nice colors running on their bodies.

Thanks for the pics - I will look out for designs/colors from next time on.

And going by your pics, looks like the snake I encountered closely resembles the last one in your list - the non-venomous rat snake, as my parents predicted it would be.

BTW, there was a news report in a Malayalam newspaper last week that was really freaky. A young boy (11 yrs old) is bitten by a snake that was in his denim pants (don't know how it got there) and even though he was taken to the hospital and given treatment, the bite proved fatal.

@deepclutch, we have a Sarpa Kaavu close to our home - maintained by my friend's family. And yes, this is pretty common in Kerala.

Originally Posted by csentil

All these snake bites can be treated using a polyvalent antivenom that is available. Usually there use to be separate antivenoms for each type of snake but in India where recognizing the snake might be a problem, the solution is to use a polyvalent antivenom.

A friend was recently bitten by a viper. As per him, most snakes bite only long enough to inject venom, but the viper (Anali in Malayalam) is like a dog when it comes to biting - it will hang on after biting. He takes a log and kills the snake and takes it along with him to the hospital so that doctors can inject the right anti-venom. He was saved, but it took a long time and it took a toll on his health too.

[Guna]

Originally Posted by badboyscad

As I've mentioned in one of my previous posts, venomous snakes usually exhibit design patterns or nice colors running on their bodies.

Not necessarily. actually it could be the other way around considering patterns (to camoflage or scare other animals) are evolved as a survival tactic in evoluation process and non venoumus snakes need it more than the venomous ones. Simillarly venomous snakes tend to be less agile as they have the power of venom to kill the pray. This is a general theory but there could be exceptions as evolution is a complex phenomenon.

[badboyscad]

Originally Posted by Guna

Not necessarily. actually it could be the other way around considering patterns

Yes there are exceptions but not many(or maybe none) in Tamilnadu. For example : the coral snake(highly venomous) and the red milk snake(non venomous) are almost identical except for their color patters, but snakes like these do not exist in India.

The coral snake(highly venomous) red-yellow-black:


The red milk snake(non venomous) red-black-white:

[Mpower]

GTO, first step is defense, but just to be safe please carry a First Aid Kit with you along with some phamplets on what to do in the event of snake bite. Keep phone number of nearest doctor as well.

[princezahed]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Yes, almost all of us would be able to make out a cobra/kingCobra, but making out a krait or viper from a harmless snake is the tough part. Would be good if the snake experts on the forum can post some pics of the krait/viper for the benefit of the rest of us.

It is black in colour and would be like a metre long and say a couple of inches thick. To say that I am scared would be an understatement - I am kind of frozen not knowing what to do. Fortunately, the snake thinks I am not worth the trouble and slithers away into the water-filled paddy fields bordering our land.

Will try to post some pictures of krait and russles viper.But its not possible to post snaps of all types of vipers since there are over 15-20types of vipers in india alone.
Did you notice the shape of the snake's head? in all probability it was a rat snake since the common russels viper is small and thick with a triangular head and diamond shaped pattern on its back and it usually brown in colour.

Originally Posted by DirtyDan

I have seen Indian sadhus with King Cobras drapped around their necks, fully unfettered, drinking milk from a bowl offered to them.
No, I am not kidding.

I have seen that too bro. Those snakes have their fangs removed and without fangs a snake is as good as a car without its engine. It cannot hunt since venom cannot be injected into its pray without fangs.Hence to stay alive it has to drink milk.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by csentil

Sorry for the minor correction, Well the 4 common types (known as the Big Four of India) are the
Indian Cobra,
Krait,
Russell's Viper
and Saw Scaled Viper

I quoted from what I remember from Whitaker's book, which I read 25 years back. Then he classified like this.

[DirtyDan]

Originally Posted by princezahed

Will try to post some pictures of krait and russles viper.But its not possible to post snaps of all types of vipers since there are over 15-20types of vipers in india alone.
Did you notice the shape of the snake's head? in all probability it was a rat snake since the common russels viper is small and thick with a triangular head and diamond shaped pattern on its back and it usually brown in colour.



I have seen that too bro. Those snakes have their fangs removed and without fangs a snake is as good as a car without its engine. It cannot hunt since venom cannot be injected into its pray without fangs.Hence to stay alive it has to drink milk.

No, sir, absolutely not true. Snake charmers remove fangs. The sadhus were handling 2 BIG Kings with fangs. They occasionally opened their mouths to re-adjust their jaws, kind of like a yawn, and you could see their fangs easily. The Kings went off into the jungle afterwards. They were wild, not captive. This was not a snake event, it was a random encounter near an ashram.

[Rocky_Balboa]

During my school days in Chennai, I have killed a number of snakes, all out of fear. Had just one come inside home, rest were all in the garden. Our neighbours house however was infested with snakes and the tenant moved out of the house after seeing one (he claimed it had its hood open) in his (attached) bathroom.

I still havent grown over the fear of snakes, the mere pictures give me goosebumps sometimes. I like them though

btw how do You distinguish between a black rattle snake and a black cobra! SB any inputs?

[dyer_made]

First of all, this is a faintly disturbing thread. not at all designed to keep thing happy.I am already at unease though there are not too many snakes in and around delhi..or so i hope.. I think I shall have to make sure now..
Secondly Dan...tires are poisonous too . in a way..just try eating a few.
Third what is amazing is how the members on this forum jump at a topic with unbridled enthusiasm and zeal. Wow!! the amount of information that has been disseminated in just a couple of days is overwhelming. lets have a few more of these loosely related to 4x4 threads. Pretty interesting stuff,actually. Keep it up guys

[deepclutch]

Hmm..I think the local people believes in good stories(here).they will say that once chera(rat snake) become old ,it will become venomous and called as chera-moorkhan(rat snake-cobra) and another theory is ,rat snake and cobra will couple to produce chera-moorkhan! .I am really curious to know ,why these claims are justified by many a people?
another common snake found in midland areas in kerala is vala vala-ppan/sankhu varayan -venomous .I dont know what you call it in English.

[bigman]

Originally Posted by princezahed

Hey Samurai do you have the book with you? IT been out of production for some time now. Capt Ashok and Rom are coming out with an updated version of the book soon. Have you been to the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station?Its an awesome place. I really envy you for staying so close to such a magnificent place.

The english edition is a bit expensive ($125) but you might still be able to get the hindi version (RS200).

Rom's web site :

draco-india.com

A few years ago there were rumours of a manimal in north Haryana (Fatehabad district) (manimal :human that could morph into any animal, the locals named him Bijoo, he used to come in a car and then attack people, in a few places cars thought to belong to him were smashed by villagers) My grandmother was at home and outside the dog kept barking towards a 1ft partly walled area (for cooking outdoors), she phoned the neighbours (too scared to go out just in case the dog was barking at Bijoo), they were too scared to come as well but eventually plucked up the courage to come round armed with lathis. They looked over the wall anticipating that this manimal Bijoo would be there but it was just a snake. It was soon beaten with the lathis, a few days later the story of Bijoo was also exposed as being concocted by a woman who had beaten her daughter with a cooking utensil and then got her to cover up the beating with the story of a man that turned into an animal.

Another time me and a cousin were messing with a swaga (big metal leveler for tractor to level the fields) in an enclosed plot opposite our house. We turned it over and out popped a fairly large lizard type thing (Bengal Monitor Lizard) hissing at us. It was a good 60cm long and after hissing it ran off. We got home and and 2 minutes later this lizard was strolling in our courtyard and then ran into an outbuilding. Took us a good 40 minutes to coax it out without hurting it and then guide it back towards the plot outside. I also saw a larger Bengal Monitor standing in the middle of the local road, as I approached it quickly shot into long grass at the side of the road.