biodiversity assessment in some selected hill forests of south orissa

Discovery of Lycodon sp. from Ganjam
An odd looking Wolf snake (Lycodon sp.) was observed
in Mahendragiri, Ganjam, which differs from the usual
Lycodon aulicus. The snake species observed is
smaller than the previous species with a typical colour
pattern. More study is needed to validate the species
status. Now we are working on the molecular level to
know the authentic identity of the species.
Discovery of Trimeruserus sp. from Ganjam
Recently we added the name of Bamboo pit viper to the
snake list of Orissa and soon after we encountered
another pit viper, which looks close to the bamboo pit
viper but completely differs in its colouration and head
scale count. We came across a single specimen from a
height of 20 ft from ground on a bamboo tree. The
animal was located with the help of search light and
after observing the snake, we were very much excited
for the surprising result. More work is going on to
describe the species.
Discovery of Black headed snake from Deomali
The colubrid snake genus Sibynophis
comprises some nine species distributed in
southern and south-eastern Asia. Up to three
species are known from mainland India, S.
collaris, S. subpunctatus, and S. sagittarius
Cantor’s Black headed snake, Sibynophis
saggitarius is one of the common species that
we had encountered during our study. The
finding has extended its authentic record to
Orissa. The similar species was also recorded
from other 17 locations of Orissa. The
Cantor’s Black headed snake
checklist of snakes of south Orissa is given in
Appendix 2.4