The rare red coral kukri snake, named "Kamalabati", which was badly injured during earth digging in Panchagarh, is now fully healthy. It was rescued last February.

Rajshahi snake researcher Borhan Biswas Romon took charge of its treatment through a local assistant.

"The happiest thing is that we have been able to save the snake. Its chances of survival were very low," Borhan Biswas said on Tuesday (11 May).

The snake is orange all over and had no Bengali name, so Borhan Biswas named it "Kamalabati". He nursed it back to health over three months of continuous treatment. When it was rescued its entrails were protruding, but after shedding its skin several times the scars on Kamalabati's wounds have disappeared.

Borhan Biswas works with the Venom Research Centre of Chittagong Medical College and rushes to rescue snakes whenever called. He runs his own snake rescue and care centre in Paba upazila of Rajshahi.

He said Kamalabati would be released after a few days of study, in the same area of Panchagarh where it was found. "Kamalabati lived in that environment in Panchagarh. The area is familiar to it, and there may be other snakes of its kind there. Considering all this, we decided to return it to Panchagarh," he explained.

The red coral kukri belongs to the genus Oligodon. According to Wikipedia, it was discovered in 1936 in the northern part of the Kheri division of Uttar Pradesh, India. In 2012 the snake was found in the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich district.

More recently, it was found in the Sonaripur protected area in 2018, and another was found there in June 2019. In August 2020 a red coral kukri was rescued from a house in Nainital district.

The Panchagarh snake was found after that. It is the first sighting of the species in Bangladesh.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.