Sighting
of King Cobra Ophiophagus hannah in
Sikkim, India: a new altitude record for the northeast
T. Bashir 1, K.
Poudyal 1, T. Bhattacharya 1, S. Sathyakumar 2& J.B. Subba 3
1,2 Wildlife Institute of India, P.O.
Box 18, Chandrabani, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248001, India
3 Department of Forests, Environment and
Wildlife Management, Deorali, Gangtok, Sikkim, India
Email: 2 ssk@wii.gov.in (corresponding author)
Date of publication (online): 26 June 2010
Date of publication (print): 26 June 2010
ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)
Editor: S. Bhupathy
Manuscript details:
Ms
# o2438
Received
08 April 2010
Final
received 10 May 2010
Finally
accepted 18 June 2010
Citation: Bashir, T., K. Poudyal, T. Bhattacharya, S. Sathyakumar & J.B. Subba
(2010). Sighting of King Cobra Ophiophagus hannah in Sikkim, India: a new altitude
record for the northeast. Journal of Threatened Taxa 2(6): 990-991.
Copyright: © T. Bashir, K. Poudyal, T. Bhattacharya, S. Sathyakumar & J.B. Subba
2010. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit
purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the
authors and the source of publication.
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the Department of Forests, Environment and
Wildlife Management, Government of Sikkim for granting us permission to work in
Sikkim. We thank the Wildlife
Institute of India, Dehradun for providing us the grants and support.
The King Cobra Ophiophagus hannah, the world’s largest venomous snake (grows up to 5.85m, Aagaard
1924), is rare, but has wide distribution (David & Vogel 1996). This monotypic genus of the family
Elapidae is considered as a species complex by Das (2002), as the species
varies in coloration, scalation and body proportion. The King Cobra is
distributed in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and most parts of
Southeast Asia (David & Vogel 1996; Selich & Kestle 2002). In India, it is distributed in the
Western Ghats, Shiwalik and terai regions of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, northeastern India and the Andaman Islands (Das
2002; Whittaker & Captain 2004; Ahmed et al. 2009). The King Cobra is listed under Schedule
II of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972; Appendix II of CITES; and in
the Least Concern category by IUCN (2004). It inhabits thick primary forests and estuarine mangrove
swamps with heavy rainfall (Whitaker & Captain 2004) and has been reported
to occupy humid jungles with thick undergrowth, cool swamps and bamboo clusters
(David & Vogel 1996; Selich & Kestle 2002; Leviton et al. 2003; Anon
2005; Das et al. 2008). In terms
of altitudinal distribution, this species is known to inhabit from 150m to 1530m
in Nepal (Selich & Kestle 2002), sea level to 1800m in Sumatra (David &
Vogel 1996) and has been reported up to 2181m in Mussoori Hills in India
(Waltner 1975).
In the present paper, we report the
sighting of the King Cobra (Image 1) from Yuksam village (27022’12.5’’N & 88013’27.0’’E) bordering
Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve in the West District of Sikkim, India. The snake was observed in a drain
adjoining human settlement (altitude: 1820m) on 06 December 2009 at 0805hr. Images 2, 3 & 4 show various
aspects of the snake. It was
visually estimated to be about 3−3.5 m in length with all characteristic
features clearly distinct. A few
days later, the snake was found to have moved a
distance of about 200m and taken refuge near Karthok (27022’14.2’’N & 88013’21.2’’E), a sacred lake at an
altitude of 1840m and in later days was oftenly seen basking on a rock near
bamboo thickets adjoining the lake.
There are two highlights of this
sighting viz.,the new altitude record of 1840m in the entire northeast and the edge of
subtropical broadleaved evergreen forest and temperate forests (characterized
by the presence of Castanopsis hystrix, Rhododendron arboreum and Symplocos sp. along with bushes of Rubus ellipticus and Edgeworthia gardneri), which may indicate the emergence of a potential habitat for the
King Cobra in Sikkim Himalaya, hence needs further study. Prior to this sighting, the species has
been reported from Gangtok 1700m in 1923 and was believed to be limited to the
tropical forests of Sikkim Himalaya <1250m (Gammie 1928). The species has also been reported from
the Teesta Valley, Sikkim at elevations <500m (Chettri & Bhupathy
2007; Chettri et al. 2008). The
highest known altitude record for King Cobra in the entire northeastern India
was 1700m at Khonoma, Nagaland (Das et al. 2008). Temperate forests of the eastern Himalaya have never been
reported as a habitat for the King Cobra as they were in higher altitudes
characterized by cold climatic conditions (Ahmed et al. 2009).
There have been very few
herpetofaunal surveys in this region as evident from the record of the King
Cobra after a gap of 82 years from Sikkim (Gammie 1928; Chettri &
Bhupathy 2007; Chettri et al. 2008). Lack of awareness among the local people could also be a disadvantage
for the conservation of this species as its status and distribution has not
been fully documented. Therefore,
we recommend that dedicated surveys be carried out in all four districts of
Sikkim to ascertain the present distribution limits and conservation status of
the King Cobra and other species of herpetofauna as initiated by Chettri et al.
(2008, 2010); and awareness programmes for the local communities to enable them
understand the significance of this species and conservation importance of
other herpetofauna. This new
record of King Cobra in temperate forests and at higher altitudes requires
further research.
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