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I stumbled upon this snake during my routine walking in the nature park near me. The location is southern India.

enter image description here

enter image description here Time if observation is 6 30 PM.

The length was approximately 1 feet. I could see the tongue coming out just like normal snakes.

The tail was pointed. Guessing it to be red boa.

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  • $\begingroup$ I would say not red boa - head shape is wrong as is colouration. I would hazard a guess at Kerela shieldtail based on the pics here: indiansnakes.org $\endgroup$
    – bob1
    Jul 20, 2021 at 9:26

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Body shape, coloration (especially lateral yellow stripe) and location all lead me to think this is some species of Uropeltis snake, all of which are endemic to India.

  • Wikipedia lists 25 species in this genus, and at least some species are only differentiated by closely examining the number of scales or size of shields.

One common species is Uropeltis eliottii, but I'll admit the coloration looks a tad too dark for your specimen.

enter image description here

Source: The Reptile Database

According to Wikipedia and The Reptile Database, this species is endemic to southern India.

In 2018, a new species, Uropeltis bhupathy was described by Jins et al (2018) from the Anaikatty Hills of the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu (is this near you?), and I think the scale coloration looks closer to your specimen.

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Source: Jins et al (2018)

Jins, V.J., Sampaio, F.L. and Gower, D.J., 2018. A new species of Uropeltis Cuvier, 1829 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) from the Anaikatty Hills of the Western Ghats of India. Zootaxa, 4415(3), pp.401-422.

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  • $\begingroup$ The color difference could be caused by the camera and the lighting (e.g. the scales reflecting light). I would guess your answer is right. Some cameras misrepresent colors, too; I have one that makes everything look more blue and less red than it appears. But yeah, we'd probably have to interrogate the questioner considerably to find out (about whether a flash was used, if a light was shining on the snake, if the snake was very reflective, if red things look less red with that camera, etc.) $\endgroup$
    – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx
    Dec 30, 2021 at 1:49

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