{"id":464499,"date":"2026-02-12T16:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T16:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/464499\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T16:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T16:24:09","slug":"snakes-on-a-train-how-king-cobras-are-spreading-across-india-thanks-to-worlds-busiest-railway-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/464499\/","title":{"rendered":"Snakes on a train: How king cobras are spreading across India thanks to world\u2019s busiest railway network"},"content":{"rendered":"

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King cobras are spreading to different parts of India<\/a> by hitching rides on some of the country\u2019s busiest railway networks, a new study has found.<\/p>\n

The Western Ghats king cobra<\/a> (Ophiophagus kaalinga), a vulnerable species in India, has been documented spreading to many parts of India\u2019s western tourist state of Goa<\/a> via trains.<\/p>\n

Normally, the species is most likely to be found in the interior part of Goa, in its forested areas and near rivers and streams, away from the state\u2019s famous coastal zones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, new research assessing decades of records revealed railway sites in some of the unlikeliest areas where the cobras, deemed the world\u2019s longest venomous snakes<\/a>, were found. <\/p>\n

These areas were far less suitable for the species than their natural habitat, scientists say.<\/p>\n

The findings suggest India\u2019s railway networks, which are the busiest in the world by passenger volume, are contributing to King Cobra migration and putting the snakes<\/a> into unsuitable habitats.<\/p>\n

\"CobraCobra on a windowsill in the moving Lokshakti Express train near Valsad, Gujarat State (Biotropica (2026)\/Sameer Lakhani via Phys.org)<\/p>\n

Analysing snake rescue data and verified local reports documented from 2002 to 2024, researchers found 47 localities for O kaalinga in Goa, with 18 in the northern part of the state, and 29 in the south.<\/p>\n

Five of these king cobra records were near busy railway corridors, scientists say.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is noteworthy that the five king cobra records that fall along busy railway corridors had the lowest predicted probability, as predicted by our model,\u201d they wrote in the study published in the journal Biotropica. <\/p>\n

“With the increased global availability of low-cost smartphones and social media in recent years, the number of reports of snakes on and around trains in India has increased,\u201d researchers wrote.<\/p>\n

Three of these incidents were recorded in a 30-day period, with \u201cmany more emerging on social media\u201d, scientists say.<\/p>\n

\u201cCombined with recent reports of snakes on trains in India and of O. kaalinga in a rail yard, entirely unsuitable reptile habitats, we propose the hypothesis that snakes, king cobras included, may inadvertently expand their ranges by accidental transport on trains,\u201d researchers concluded.<\/p>\n

They suspect the availability of prey in the form of rodents and other snakes aboard India\u2019s goods carrier trains, as well as \u201cshelter and serendipity\u201d, could be driving this migration.<\/p>\n

“Our findings suggest a different, more passive mechanism: railways may act not just as corridors for active movement, but as high-speed conduits,\u201d scientists wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe potential for railways to inadvertently connect populations across otherwise unsuitable habitats represents a novel and under-appreciated aspect of human-wildlife interaction,” they added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-464499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}