12 Species of Coral Snakes and Sea Snakes Found in India

Coral Snakes and Sea Snakes belongs to subfamily of venomous elapid snakes. Coral Snakes has most potent venom in the world but they are not aggressive and feed mostly on smaller lizards and frogs.

Sea snakes or coral reef snakes are called as Hydrophiinae and adapted to a fully aquatic life, found in coastal waters from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific .

Species of Coral Snakes Found in India

Coral snakes spend most of their time underground and coming to the surface during rainy and breeding season. Here is the list of 6 species of coral snakes found in India.

Beddome’s Coral Snake (Calliophis beddomei)

Beddome’s Coral Snake species is endemic to the hills in the Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats of India. Beddome’s Coral reported from the Shevaroy Hills or Yercaud,Koppa and Nilgiri Mountains.

Bibron’s Coral Snake (Calliophis bibroni)

Bibron’s Coral Snakes are native to India, found in the Western Ghats of India. The endemic coral snake belongs to venomous elapid snake family and mostly distributed in Karnataka State.

Slender Coral Snake (Calliophis melanurus)

Slender Coral Snake is also known as Indian Coral Snake distributed throughout the Southern parts of India. Slender Coral is a nocturnal snake lives in dry forest of peninsular India.

Castoe’s Coral Snake (Calliophis castoe)

Castoe’s Coral Snake is a species of venomous elapid snake found in India.

MacClelland’s Coral Snake (Sinomicrurus macclellandi)

MacClelland’s Coral Snake found in North Indian states of Sikkim, Mizoram, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

Striped Coral Snake (Calliophis nigrescens)

Striped Coral Snake also known as Black Coral Snake is found in the Western Ghats region of Nilgiris, Anamalai and Wayanad. Its one of species of venomous elapid snake endemic to India.

List of Sea Snakes Found in India

There are 20 kinds of sea snakes found in India, here is the list of few such as Stokes’ Sea Snake, Anomalous Sea Snake and Viperine sea snake.

Banded Sea Krait (Laticauda colubrina)

Banded Sea Krait also known as yellow lipped sea krait is one of the highly venomous species of sea snake found in eastern Indian Ocean. Sea kraits are semiaquatic and non aggressive.

Blue Lipped Sea Krait (Laticauda laticaudata)

Blue Lipped Sea Krait also known as blue ringed sea krait found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. This species is also found in the coasts of Bay of Bengal.

Beaked Sea Snake (Enhydrina schistosa)

Beaked Sea Snake or hook nosed sea snake is a highly venomous species of sea snake found in Indo-Pacific. These snakes are generally found in the coastal islands of India.

Annandale’s Sea Snake Kolpophis annandalei)

Annandale’s Sea Snake or bighead sea snake is found in the waters of Indian Ocean and Indonesia. The bighead sea snake is one of the most venomous species of sea snake.

Shaw’s Sea Snake (Lapemis curtus)

Shaw’s Sea Snake widely distributed in Indian Ocean, From coasts of Gujarat to West Bengal. Shaw’s sea snake and Spine-bellied sea snake are only two members of Lapemis genus.

Yellow Bellied Sea Snake (Hydrophis platurus)

Yellow Bellied Sea Snake found in oceanic waters of India as well entire tropical Indo-Pacific. The yellow bellied sea snake has a distinctive color pattern yellow underbelly and brown back.