The Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun spotted an Assam Keelback, (also known as Herpetoreas pealii), in Arunachal Pradesh after 129 years since it was first discovered in the region. It is a non-venomous snake that belongs to the Natricinae subfamily of Colubridae. It is known to be endemic to the Northeast region of India especially in the upper Assam region.
“The snake was first discovered 129 years ago in 1891 in the Sivasagar district of upper Assam by Samuel Edward Peal, a British tea planter. The region was covered in an impenetrable evergreen forest teeming with rich wildlife,” said Abhijit Das, a scientist at WII.
He deposited a specimen of the Assam Keelback at the Natural History Museum located in London. It was named Herpetoreas pealii by Lutly Sclater, a British zoologist. After this, it has never been spotted since.
Abhijit Das also says that in September 2018, his team set out to find that snake and happened to encounter a female in the Poba Reserved Forest. It is located on the inter-state border of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. When they contacted the Natural History Museum in London, they confirmed it to be the Assam keelback.
The finding of the snake in a forest region rather than near a stream has made wildlife experts opine that there is a need to focus on conserving ‘special habitats’.