Recently India has been facing a lot of weather and climatic changes. Sometimes it's really hot in winter and sometimes it rains in summer. I usually avoid herping during the summers as the climate is very hot and humid, and the forests are dried up to a certain extent.

In my city, it rained many times in March. A group of herpetologist friends and I decided to go herping in some nearby hills. Four of us were all set for herping.

Me and my group of friends have been into rescuing, conservation, and study of snakes for the past five years, and all of them are part of a new generation of Indian reptile hobbyists. So I would like to introduce them: Akshay Parahalkar (Axy), metalhead and a snake rescuer and studying reptiles; Anirudh Rathod, a newcomer who has been doing great work in snake rescuing; Riyaz Khoja, who I mentioned in my previous article, a very good wildlife photographer and snake rescuer who always helps me with his magnificent photographs for my articles.

So coming back to my story, we started herping at 7 AM so we could see some of our reptilian friends basking in the sun. It did not take much time to find one.

Axy and Anirudh were the ones to spot this amazing snake called the common bronzeback tree snake, Dendrelaphis tristis, one of the beautiful tree snakes of India. The common bronzeback is thin and long with flat elongated head and large eyes with round pupils. A brown or bronze stripe runs along top of body from head to tail. The underside is yellowish, bluish-green, or light green.The upper lip scales are light yellow.The size varies from 3.5 ft to 5.5 ft, and is viviparous by nature.



After finding this beauty, Riyaz clicked these beautiful photographs and we continued with our herping.

Photos: Riyaz Khoja