Ophiophagus hannah (Cantor, 1836) - King Cobra

Subspecies in India

This species is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (https://www.iucnredlist.org/).

 

Taxonomic Information

 

Conservation and Special status

 

Photo Gallery and Species Biology

Ophiophagus hannah - King Cobra


Type Locality: Sunderbans, West Bengal (India)
Known to be occurred in Uttarakhand in Western Himalayas to Arunachal Pradesh in Eastern Himalayas, down till southern India along the Eastern Ghats up to Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, in the Western Ghats and Andaman Islands (Stuart et al., 2012). A 30% population reduction of King Cobra is known from India over 75 years (Stuart et al., 2012). 
Possibly this may be a species complex because of its wider distribution (Stuart et al., 2012).


Conservation Status:

 

 

This species is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (https://www.iucnredlist.org/).
 

The species can be seen in pristine forests, mangrove swamps, agricultural areas with remnants of woodland, rivers, palm oil plantations and tea estates (Stuart et al., 2012). The reasons behind the population decline are habitat destruction, land conversion into agricultural fields or urban development and harvesting mature individuals from wild for medicinal purpose, pet and trading (Stuart et al., 2012).

 

 

StateJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecNo date
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Andhra Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh
Assam2
Bihar
Chandigarh
Chhattisgarh
Dadra & Nagar Haveli
Daman & Diu
Delhi
Goa11
Gujarat
Haryana
Himachal Pradesh
Jammu and Kashmir
Jharkhand
Karnataka
Kerala1
Lakshadweep
Madhya Pradesh
Maharashtra
Manipur
Meghalaya
Mizoram2
Nagaland
Odisha
Paschimbanga11
Pondicherry
Punjab
Rajasthan
Sikkim
Tamil Nadu
Tripura
Uttar Pradesh
Uttarakhand
West Bengal
Total221211

Other Notes

 

Page citation

Anonymous 2024. Ophiophagus hannah (Cantor, 1836) – King Cobra. In Kamdar, A. and K. Kunte. (Chief Editors). Butterflies of India, v. v.1.26. Published by the Indian Foundation for Butterflies. URL: https://www.indianreptiles.org/ophiophagus-hannah, accessed 2024/10/07.