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Keep up with news and features of interest to the reptile and amphibian community on the kingsnake.com blog. We cover breaking stories from the mainstream and scientific media, user-submitted photos and videos, and feature articles and photos by Jeff Barringer, Richard Bartlett, and other herpetologists and herpetoculturists.

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Thursday, February 12 2026

Snakes on a Train?

By kingsnake.com
Thu, February 12 2026 at 02:48

1 / 1Do Western Ghats King Cobras, Ophiophagus kaalinga, take the train? (a) View of Chandor Station, Goa, India, from below the platform, showing the vegetation and the concrete pillars, where the snake was found. This location is atypical and unsuitable for king cobras. (b) Laborer accommodations lie just a dirt path away from the concrete pillars where the king cobra was recorded. (c) The snake emerged from beneath a pile of railway tracks stored at the site for ongoing railway maintenance and repair. (d) An Indian Cobra (Naja naja) on a windowsill in the moving Lokshakti Express train near Valsad, Gujarat State, India. Photos by Dikansh S. Parmar (a, b), Sourabh Yadav (c), and Sameer Lakhani (d). Credit: Biotropica (2026). DOI: 10.1111/btp.70157

We all have laughed at the movie "Snakes on a Plane" but now the reality of snakes on a train is all too true for the cobras in India! Many travelers started reporting, with photos, the Western Ghats King Cobra (Ophiophagus kaalinga) riding on the train. These vulnerable snakes started popping up in odd locations in the country, in ranges that are not hospitable to their needs.

In 2017, study author Dikansh Parmar was volunteering with a local animal rescue group that received a call about a snake onboard a train. The incident is now included as part of this study. Another train rescue occurred in 2019, which ended up in a newspaper report in Uttarakhand. An incident occurred in 2023, in which a snake catcher from Gujarat State snapped a picture of an Indian Cobra sitting in a train window.

The study team writes, "With the increased global availability of low-cost smartphones and social media in recent years, the number of reports of snakes on and around trains in India has increased, with three incidents recorded in a 30-day period, and many more emerging on social media."


To read more about the study, click here!
    
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