While the impacts of road networks on the safety and movement of large mammals such as elephants and tigers are widely reported, such infrastructure could have much more serious consequences for smaller animals and reptiles such as the little-known Xylophis perroteti, commonly known as the Perrotet’s mountain snake and the Striped narrow-headed snake.
Recent research suggests that the reptiles, which are endemic to the Western Ghats and restricted largely to the Nilgiris hills, use the roads for thermoregulation, putting them directly at risk from being run over by vehicles.
One among the five recognised species of the Xylophis genus, all endemic to the Western Ghats, scientists note that very little is known about the population trends of all five species, including the Perrotet’s mountain snake.
