Shorthead Kukri Snake Oligodon brevicauda is a species of snake

Snake

Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...

 found in the Western Ghats

Western Ghats

The Western Ghats, Western Ghauts or the Sahyādri is a mountain range along the western side of India. It runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea. The Western Ghats block rainfall to the Deccan...

 of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

Description

See snake scales

Snake scales

Snakes, like other reptiles, have a skin covered in scales. Snakes are entirely covered with scales or scutes of various shapes and sizes. Scales protect the body of the snake, aid it in locomotion, allow moisture to be retained within, alter the surface characteristics such as roughness to aid in...

 for terms used

Rostral in contact with and partly separating the prefrontals. No internasals ; no loreal touching the preocular; seven supralabials, 3rd and 4th touching the eye; 1 anterior temporal. Scales in 15 rows. Ventrals 158-173, not angulate laterally. Caudals 25-29.
Brown above with a light vertebral stripe, bordered on each side by a dark brown or black stripe involving two scale-rows; these stripes may or may not be marked with paired series of spots or short bars on the anterior part of the body; a narrow dark lateral stripe on each side of scale row 3; brownish or whitish below (red in life) with large quadrangular or transverse black spots; head with a crescent-shaped band in front, an oblique temporal stripe, and a large dark nuchal patch usually connecting by a longitudinal stripe with the prefrontal mark.

Total length of females 500mm with tail 55mm.

Known from the Western Ghats

Western Ghats

The Western Ghats, Western Ghauts or the Sahyādri is a mountain range along the western side of India. It runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea. The Western Ghats block rainfall to the Deccan...

 south of the Goa Gap

Goa Gap

The Goa Gap is one of the major passes in the Western Ghats, between the Maharashtra and Karnataka sections....

and in the Niligiri, Anaimalai and Travancore hills.