Context: The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh is keen on reintroducing king cobras in the state as an antidote to spiralling snakebite deaths. He also wants snakes in the state counted in order to assess numbers of the venomous ones.
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts about King Cobra.
About King Cobra:
- The king cobra is the world’s longest venomous snake, it can grow to 15 feet in length.
- In India, its range include- Western Ghats, North Indian terai belt, Northeast India, mangrove coastlines of West Bengal and Odisha, Andaman and Nicobar, and parts of the Eastern Ghats.
- Found across diverse habitats- from highland evergreen and semi-evergreen forests to estuarine mangroves with high rainfall.
- It prefers humid, dark forests with thick undergrowth, cool swamps, and bamboo patches. There is no reliable historical record of its presence in the dry deciduous forests of central India.
- It is the only snake species that builds nests for its eggs. It tends to stay away from human habitations. It does not breed well in captivity.
Threats and Conservation Status:
- Threats: Deforestation, urban expansion, habitat encroachment, hunting for skin and meat.
- IUCN status: Vulnerable
- CITES: Appendix II
- Wildlife Protection Act 1972: Schedule-II. Regarded as the national reptile of India.
Distinct lineages of Cobras:
A study using genetic and morphometric data found that king cobras are not one species, but a complex of at least four distinct lineages:
- Western Ghats Lineage - Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra.
- Asian Mainland Lineage - Northern and Eastern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, Thailand.
- Malay Peninsula Lineage - Malaysia and parts of Southern Thailand.
- Greater Sunda and Philippines Lineage - Indonesia, Philippines.
Concerns: Different lineages are genetically distinct, adapted to specific ecosystems. Transferring one to another area can cause hybridisation (mixing of genes), ecological disruption and loss of unique evolutionary identity.
Any captive breeding and reintroduction efforts must ensure that species are not allowed to hybridise, and that only the appropriate local species is released in any reintroduction programme.