Banded krait and 19 baby cobras rescued

A banded krait and 19 baby cobras were found by two youths engaged in environment conservation from Assam's Nalbari district and were released in the wild, a forest official said on Tuesday.

Abinash Sarma found the venomous banded krait on Tuesday and handed it over to forest department officials who later released it in a forest area near National Highway 31, range officer of Nalbari range officer Animesh Kalita said.

Banded krait, the largest species of kraits are found in India and south east Asia measure about 6 feet in length. The specie is easily identified by its alternate black and yellow crossbands.

The baby cobras were found by Homen Talukdar of Nalbari Satra area from the Helacha health sub-centre and handed over them to the forest department on Monday evening.

The forest officials later released the snakes at Dirgheswari under Amingaon forest range, Kalita said.

Talukdar said that the matured cobra had left when he and some others wiith him arrived at the spot.