Oxybelis fulgidus

This is my second encounter with this species of snake. The nightmare of many people but for me it is one of the most beautiful creations of nature. The color, the shape, the eyes are all too amazing. Let me clarify it from the beginning itself that this snake is not dangerous at all. Even though it is said to be mildly venomous, its saliva is lethal only to its prey animals which includes small lizards. For humans, it doesn't cause much more than a little pain and local swelling. That too for sensitive people. And moreover there is a very little chance of you getting bitten by this snake (unless you harass it by handling it wrongly). This snake is really shy and with its perfect camouflage it is hard to spot it among the grasses and trees. The monsoon rains have subsided but it has left a whole lot of grasses growing within our hostel compounds. So we have been clearing the grasses with a grass cutting machine and the person operating the machine saw this snake among the thickets of grasses. The snake had killed a semi adult garden lizard and was in the process of swallowing it. Now this incident turned out to be very educative to the person who found it and a worker near by. They believed that this snake is really dangerous and so poisonous that its mere breath can kill a person. So I took this opportunity to clear their false belief. I even took the snake near to my face to breathe in his breath. which was a risk, as this snake is known to strike at eyes since our eyes blink and the snake detects motion and strikes). I hope the next time they spot this species of snake, they don't panic and cause harm to both themselves as well as to the snake.