A glossy black-and-white South Asian elapid responsible for many bites at night because it readily enters homes and beds.
Description
The common krait is a slim, glossy black snake under 1.5 m with thin paired white crossbands along the body. The vertebral scales are noticeably enlarged and hexagonal, a useful field mark to separate it from harmless mimics like the wolf snakes.
Behavior
Almost entirely nocturnal, common kraits hunt other snakes and small lizards in fields and on village paths. They often crawl into bedding looking for warmth, and bites delivered at night may be painless at first but produce severe paralysis hours later — a leading cause of snakebite death in rural South Asia.
Range
Common across the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka in lowlands and foothills below about 1,600 m, often near human habitation. It is one of the four major medically important snakes of India under the term “Big Four.”