A rare flying snake called Ornate Flying Snake or Chrysopelea ornata, the mildly venomous snake something that has never been seen in either Telangana or Andhra Pradesh till now was spotted in Goshamahal in Hyderabad on 14th July.

Arun Kumar, joint secretary of Friends of Snakes Society said that “On July 14, we received a distress call on our helpline from a shopkeeper in Goshamahal reporting a small snake near the entrance of his plywood shop. Responding to the call, our closest member visited the site expecting a Rat Snake or a Spectacled Cobra, which are the common snakes in that region. To his utter disbelief, he found an Ornate Flying Snake ( Chrysopelea ornata), a mildly venomous one. This snake was hiding inside the rolling shutter gap of the shop, from where it was carefully extracted. It was immediately sent to the society’s shelter in Sainikpuri for further examination and housing.”

“This species is not found in this region, instead it is found in the Western Ghats, Bihar, Odisha, WB, UP, Northeast India and South East Asia. There are numerous timber depots near the rescue site and it is likely that this snake was accidentally transported along with timber or plywood cargo. This one-and-a-half foot specimen would be temporarily housed at our shelter, during which behavioral studies would be conducted. With the support of the forest department, this ‘astray’ snake would be relocated to a forest area. We have been doing rescues for the past 20 years and this is the first time we have encountered a flying snake. Usually, it glides from one tree to the other in rain forests to avoid predators. It can’t take off from the ground like a bird. Once earlier we had rescued a snake in the Nampally railway station that had taken the train from Karnataka to Hyderabad. It was then identified as Bronze BackTree Snake. Instances of snakes coming in courier, container, and consignment vehicles are not too uncommon,” he added. General secretary of Friends of Snake Society V. Aniash added.