Rare variety of albino Krait found in Orissa

Bhubaneshwar, Jan.9 (ANI): Villagers near Bhubaneshwar city of Orissa recently caught hold of a rare variety of albino Krait.

"People thought that they had caught a white coloured cobra. But from it's proportion it didn't appear to be a cobra. When I saw it I figured it out that this was a Krait having albino.

•   E-mail Article
•   Printer Friendly
•   Text-Size    

I had never heard about any albino Krait," said Suvendu Kumar Mallick, the secretary of the Snake help line.

Albino snakes are white in colour. Suffering from albinism, they are known to have pattern of red blotches on their body. Most of the albino snakes are beautiful and elegant to look at and people usually keep them as pets, as they are easy to tame also.

Inspite of sharing similar features with other albino snakes, an albino krait is known to be ferocious and extremely venomous.

Meanwhile, the albino Krait found by villagers has been kept under observation at College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry.

According to Dr. Suvendu Kumar Das, Associate Professor, Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Albino is a condition which occurs in mammals, birds, reptiles including human beings.

"It is a rare case because albino has been reported in snakes before also. But it was reported in cobras and rat snakes. It will be for the first time that albino krait in snake variety has been found," said Dr.Das.

Kraits are brightly coloured venomous but non-aggressive snake of southeastern Asia and Malay peninsula. These nocturnal creatures have short fangs with highly Nero toxic venom.

Their bite can cause respiratory failure. These snakes are responsible for a large number of fatal bites and can be easily confused with the non-venomous Wolf snakes.

Kraits are among the most common snakes found in India. They are deadly about 15 times more deadly than the common cobra. They are active at night and relatively passive during the day. By Sarda Lahangir (ANI)