Keri: Erratic rain in Chorla Ghat has increased deaths of shield-tailed snakes, which leave flooded burrows to find dry ground and are often crushed by vehicles on tar roads.“Shield-tailed snakes are small, underground-adapted creatures. On smooth, paved surfaces they move slowly and become highly vulnerable to being run over,” said Ramesh Zarmekar, a wildlife worker in the Mhadei region.Zarmekar said he recorded nearly 150 shield-tailed snake deaths along a 7km stretch in Chorla Ghat and urged govt to impose speed limits on forested road sections within the snakes’ habitat.He said the snakes emerge to escape waterlogged burrows and often use warm tar roads to regulate body temperature and hunt earthworms displaced by rain, a behaviour that sharply raises their risk.“These endemic snakes usually remain confined to fragmented forest patches in the Western Ghats,” he said. “But when unseasonal rains flood the topsoil, they are forced to seek drier ground.”Other wildlife, including frogs, toads, and millipedes, are also killed by speeding vehicles, but snake casualties are especially high.
