Clue of the King

It was a hectic schedule as we had went trekking  for 12 km into the forest.  After coming back to base camp and having sumptuous  lunch, everyone was chilling out . Two of my classmates were sitting on the rocks by the side of a stream, which was flowing  just behind the forest guest house were we stayed.

Suddenly, one of the guy sitting by the streamed shouted out to call my another friend that he had found something interesting.(I should mention the friend who is been called is interested in reptiles). During this moment I was in deep sleep not aware of what was happening.

After some reason one of my friend came running into the room and asking for a camera, by then I had woke up realizing something interesting has been going on and I shouldn’t miss it.

When I went out to see what was going on I was astonished. It was the skin of a king cobra(Ophiophagus hannah) . It was hanging down from the tree branch besides the river bank. It was first time when I had been to a king cobra territory , and I was awestruck and thrilled. We then took the skin out from the there and laid it on the rocks to get the measurement of it. It was an awesome 10.5 ft long skin!!!

That time we realized , there is somewhere a king cobra around the guest house but because our luck we were not able to see it.

King cobra is the world’s longest venomous snake and can grow up to size of 18ft!! They are diurnal , but are mostly found during day time. Found in east and south east Asia. In India they are found in Western ghats,  parts of Eastern India, Himalayan foothills, and north east India.The venom is mostly thought to be neurotoxin. They generally tend to avoid confrontation but when threatened they get aggressive. They are the only snake in the world who are capable of building nest.

Location : Silent Valley National Park, Kerala     Date : Nov’15