Snake species, endemic to the Northeast, rediscovered in Arunachal Pradesh after 129 years

Assam Keelback is said to be a "real khilonjia" or indigenous snake species as it is endemic to the ecologically rich Northeast.

It, however, was last seen in 1891, when the Britishers started expanding tea plantation in Sivasagar, the capital of the erstwhile Ahom Kingdom in upper Assam. Almost 129 years down the line, a team of researchers have re-discovered the snake species inside a reserve forest in Arunachal Pradesh, during their attempt to retrace the infamous Abor Expedition.

The British soldiers had carried out the expedition in Arunachal Pradesh more than 100 years ago and had killed several people belonging to the Abor community as a revenge for killing an officer in neighbouring Assam.

"Our effort was to retrace the historical Abor Expedition that was done 100 years back starting from Kobo Chapori to Gelling area of Arunachal Pradesh. We wanted to see how many species we can record, those were documented 100 years back after so much of changes that happened," Abhijit Das, one of the researchers of Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WWI) told DH on Monday.

David J. Gower and V Deepak were two other researchers, who rediscovered the snake in September 2018 but it was recently confirmed to be Assam Keelback or Herpetoreas pealii.

The research team found the harmless dark brown snake while following one of the muddy bottomed streams inside Poba Reserve Forest near Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border.

The team, however, had to get in touch with Natural History Museum, London to confirm with the original specimen, which was collected by Samuel Edward Peal, a British tea planter based in the upper Assam and deposited to the museum. Another specimen was deposited in the Zoolofical Survey of India, Kolkata.

"This discovery is significant as we have discovered a first female individual of the species and a natural habitat where this rar snake exists. Assam Keelback is endemic to lowland evergreen forests of upper Assam that were already fragmented into small patches, mainly from the expansion of tea plantations, habitation and agriculture," Das said in a statement.

The team said emerging threats of coal mining, oil exploration in the region, however, would deteriorate biodiversity values of these fragmented patches. “In addition to new fieldwork to look for Assam Keelback in other forest patches close to Poba Reserve Forest such as Pani Dihing Wildlife Sanctuary, Dibru Saikhowa National Park in Assam and D’Ering Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh is also necessary,” Das said.