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Assam keelback snake found after 129 years
Why is it in News?
- The Assam keelback — a snake species endemic to the region — was rediscovered in 2018 by a team from Wildlife Institute of India (WII)
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- also known as ‘Herpetoreas pealii’
- It was discovered 129 years ago by Samuel Edward Peal, a British tea planter based in Upper Assam
- The two specimens of 1891 were kept in the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Kolkata, and the Natural History Museum, London
- Currently, found in Poba Reserve Forest (RF) located at the interstate boundary of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh
- It is non-venomous snake
- Most snakes and other reptiles are categorised as ‘data deficient’ in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list. This is the worst category because there is practically no information available about it and it is difficult to determine its status.