UNRAVELING THE COILS OF MYSTERY : A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF PYTHON (REPTILIA: SQUAMATA: PYTHONIDAE) DIVERSITY IN WEST BENGAL

ABSTRACT

Pythons ( Reptilia Squamata Pythonidae ) are an ancient group of snakes that have slithered across the swamps, grasslands and rainforests of the world from the Miocene till the present day. The name python was first proposed by Francois Marie Daudin in 1803. In West Bengal, an Indian State on the eastern part of the country, is the host of three major python species – Indian rock python (Python molurus) in the savanna regions; Burmese python (Python bivittatus) in the temperate wetlands and the mangroves and the longest extant snake, the Reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus) in the mangrove regions of Sundarbans. Once abundant, these giant reptilians are now on the brink of extinction due to habitat loss and illegal hunting and other anthropogenic encroachments in their natural habitats