Guwahati, Feb. 1 -- byAbhaya Raj Joshi

In July 2022, Tujin Rai, an undergraduate biology student, saw a dead snake outside his home in Dhankuta in Nepal's eastern hills. He was curious to identify it.

Rai, who interns at the Kathmandu-based NGO Nature Conservation and Study Centre, posted the image of the snake on Facebook, where it was spotted by veteran herpetologist Karan Bahadur Shah.

"Prof. Shah identified the snake as a lesser black krait (Bungarus lividus)," Rai, whose findings were published in the journalReptiles and Amphibians,recently told Mongabay. "Prof. Shah told me that the snake had so far only been documented in Nepal's plains," Rai said, adding that he again encountered a juvenile of the same species on June 15, 2023,...