Common Vine Snake

Description:

At Silent Valley National Park, Kerala, India. (This looks like a yellow morph?) {Description from 'Snakes Of India- The Field Guide', by Romulus Whitaker : Harmless. Mildly poisonous, poison resembling that of the cobra as far as the symptoms r concerned. In man, the poison usually has no effect. But occassionally, swelling and numbness of the bitten area may result. An elegant snake with a wonderful turn of speed over foliage, the slender and light body is capable of obtaining support from the minutest twig and twining stem. It is diurnal, usually reclines on the topmost boughs of bushes and escapes notice by its cryptic colouration. Its markedly concave shape between eye and tip of the head permits binocular vision. The habit of striking at the eye of its opponent, the only object in movement in the snake's view, is noted in the common name for the snake in Tamil, kankothi pambu, which translates as 'eye-pecking-snake'. }

Habitat:

Shola Grassland on the edge of Tropical rainforest. At Silent Valley National Park, in the Western Ghats, Kerala, India

Notes:

[THE EXPERIENCE OF THIS SHOT:] This is one of those moments, which u wud never want to lose! ;) While trekking in Silent Valley national park just outside a shola forest opening out to a sloping grassland, prime Elephant habitat, with lot of dungs and tell-tale signs around, of elephant herd movement .. My heart skipped a few beats when I saw it..A yellow Vine Snake, spotted by my sheer luck, well camouflaged among yellow-green grass.. It was as if nothing else existed around me then.. Still holding the camera, I stepped back a few paces, and inched towards it both watching intently.. as if both not sure who's predator who's prey!! ;) Finally 'we' were on "level-grounds", with me crouching down to its level, looking eye-to-eye. It is known as an "eye-pecking snake" So.. there i was, squinting through the camera.. with the exposed eye closed, but feeling strain on closed eye-lids, before I could open it for a while, it turned straight on, now looking at me with both eyes, face-to-face! I subtly brought my hand from lens to cover the eye, open it and relieve the strain, without intimidating the snake with any quick movement, and now with my eye covered,was FACING it safely.. Looking at it close up through the view-finder, it was almost like a long-paused dream!!.. containing my breath.. to capture that fleeting moment before it goes away.. few moments later my friend Giri came back looking for me.. and it slithered away into the reed bed by the grass!.. Whew! What moments!! PRECIOUS PRECIOUS moments!! No amount of money can buy me that MOMENT AGAIN ;)) that spontaneity of it.. the moment of spotting it.. bated breaths.. ..exxcited with with the possibility of shooting it.. n sitting there... eye-to-eye.. watching each other.. cautious.. untrusting, unsure of next move.. I could relive those moments a hundred times, yet feel thirst for more of those! Truly PRECIOUS moments! ;)