The saw-scaled viper, Echis carinatus, is a venomous snake found in India and the smallest member of the Indian "Big Four" deadly snakes of India.

This pygmy snake is one of the fastest-striking snakes in the world, and definitely the fastest striking one in India. The thing I like best about this tiny creature is that when the saw-scaled viper is disturbed, it coils and rubs its saw-like scales together to make a noise like a wood-saw.

They are hemotoxic by nature as they are from viper family.

Another species of saw-scaled viper found in India is the Sochurek’s saw-scaled viper, Echis carinatus Sochureki, which is found in some western and central parts of India.

The saw-scaled viper's body is pale brown with a white-bordered zig zag pattern. The body is white underneath with tiny brown spots. Small scales are present on head, and a white or pale brown spear mark on top.

The eyes are large golden with vertical black pupils, and the body is rounded and has scales with saw-like keels. The tail is short.

Saw-scaled vipers are commonly seen in coastal areas and they are found under boulders and thorny bushes. Though nocturnal, they may be seen basking in the morning. They feed on scorpions, centipedes, and geckos. Viviparous by nature, they give birth to 4-8 young ones.



Usually there are few saw-scaled vipers in my area, but whenever I find one while herping, I am eager to hear the wood-saw noise. I find these tiny creatures very beautiful and attractive, but I always avoid bare-hand handling them.

The common krait, Bungarus caeruleus, is a venomous snake found in India -- one of the four deadliest snakes of India known as "The Indian Big Four."

The krait is also included in the top five deadliest of the world, in part because of its silent killing ability. When a person is bitten by a krait, he or she won't feel pain because of the small-sized fangs; the bite pain is like a mosquito bite.

The common krait is a nocturnal snake; the kraits I rescued have all been rescued after 8 PM. It's difficult to find a snake during daytime rescue calls.

India is home to six or seven species of krait, and they're and also common in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and many other Asian countries. The bite rate for the common krait is lower in India as compared to cobras and Russells vipers because kraits are very shy by nature and usually do not bite. That is the reason I love them.

Kraits have smooth bodies and glossy scales; they are blue or black in color and sometimes dark brown. There are single or paired thin white bands on the shiny black body, which makes them more beautiful and is the reason I use the 'Black Beauty' to describe a common krait.

The ventral part is white and sometimes yellowish. They feed on snakes mostly and sometimes even other kraits. Occasionally they eat mice, frogs, and lizards. The average length of krait is 100-120 cms and the maximum length is 175 cms.



There are many controversies related to krait bite deaths in India. Often when people are bitten by a krait, it's night time and they don't realize it. And the symptoms of krait bite are not at all predictable. The symptoms might take 6 hours or even 48 hours to start. The symptoms have seven or eight stages leading up to death. The deadliest symptom is paralysis; the bite victim is not even able to move his or her fingertips. There have been cases where the victims were declared dead by doctors in the paralyzed condition.

Keeping the deadly part apart, I always loved kraits because they attacked me very rarely on rescue calls and always make my rescuing task easy.