As the name itself describes, the vine snake, Ahaetulla nasuta, is a tree-reliant snake that camofluages itself as a vine in foliage. There are five species of vine snake found in India amongst which the green vine snake is most commonly found.

The green vine snake has a thin and long body that is expanded when disturbed to show a black and white scale marking otherwise hidden under the scales. The head is elongated and pointed, which appears like a leaf shape having attractive golden yellow eyes with black horizontal pupils.

The body colour is bright or dark green with a bluish tint in exceptional cases. The ventral side is separated by two white lines in the greenish dorsal under side. In an adult green vine snake, size varies from 150 to 200 cm. The green vine snake is viviparous by nature.

Vine snakes are found across the world including the South American and African continents. Most of the places it is called a whip snake.

I never got a chance to rescue this species because my area is a "concrete jungle," full of buildings, but I've come across vine snakes while herping. One fine morning in the jungles of Goa, I was herping for some vine snakes and pit viper snakes through the green trees and cool breeze.

Although it was a sunny morning, I could not find anything. Then I took a few steps back and realized I'd missed something due to the previous night's booze effect, and I saw a vine snake hiding himself in the green leaves. It was almost 7am and indeed a good start.

Vine snakes are a perfect example of nature’s beauty. Many of my friends call it "a snake from a different planet" because of its appearance, which makes it look different from other snakes. For me, "Green is my favourite colour and vine snake is my favourite creature in green."

Ahaetulla nasuta in threat posture by Sandilya Theuerkauf This file is licensed under the license.

Green vine snake by Manuspanicker. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.