Snakes are reptiles that belong to the order of Squamata. Squamata or scaled reptiles is the largest order of reptiles which includes both lizards and snakes. Snakes are carnivorous reptiles, which have an acute sense of sight and smell. Snakes are scaly, limbless and elongate reptiles. The skin of the snakes are covered with scales that are smooth and dry and they use specialised belly scales in travelling. The snakes shed their skin periodically by rubbing its nose against a rock thus creating a rip in the skin around the nose until the skin is completely removed. It is believed that snakes descend from the lizard like ancestors. The absence of eyelids, external ear openings, and limbs distinguishes them from the lizard.

Snakes has the presence of poison glands, which are modified salivary glands that secrete poison. It`s their weapon for capturing prey and is a feature unique to snakes. Snakes inhabits in paddy fields and open sandy areas. They adapt to the environments in the tropical and temperate regions. Snakes possess an acute sense of sight and smell. The presence of food is smelled by their forked tongue. External ears are absent in them and they can only hear vibrations. The locomotion of the snakes is known as serpentine locomotion. They move through lateral undulations of the body. Most snakes incubate their eggs. The female usually coils herself on the eggs to accelerate hatching. Mating usually occurs during the winter, with the eggs being laid some 3-4 months later. The eggs hatch about 6 weeks after being laid.

There are about 238 species of snakes in India. The climatic condition of the country appears to be ideal for them.

Types of Reptiles
There are different types of reptiles as:
Dhaman -. The Dhamans are essentially found in the plains. It swallows its prey at once and they reach its stomach alive and the snake kills it by pressing the prey against the ground with its body. This is the only snake that performs a `combat dance`, which takes place between rival males where both snakes entwine parallel to the ground. The villagers believe this dance as the mating position between a cobra AND a Rat Snake. This snake is found in Sri Lanka and Burma, Afghanistan and Turkestan.

Fasciolated Ratsnake - is a harmless snake. It is capable of flattening its fore body like a cobra. It can stick firmly to the floor and can travel swiftly avoiding human eyes. When exited it erects its hood like a cobra and strike if further challenged. It is very difficult to capture and will strike repeatedly and wiggle tenaciously. It is found in West Bengal. North Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Gray`s Rat Snake- is also known as glossy bellied racer. It belongs to the species of rat snake or racer. It is a fast and active snake and hence it is given the name - racer. It inhabits in stony hillsides, open or cultivated lands. It is found in Pokaran district in the Thar Desert. When disturbed it races into its hiding place.

Diadem snake- is considered as the prettiest of snakes. This snake is also known as royal snake. It is similar in shape to a cat snake but has an oval head. It has a length of 130 cms. This snake feed on rodents and hence is considered as beneficial to farmers.

Common Kukri Snake This snake is very muscular and is capable of inflating itself to a remarkable degree when disturbed because its lung can expand backward into its chest cavity. It has specially adapted ventral scales that enable it to scale rough vertical walls with ease. It is a very timid snake that attacks only when it is disturbed. It is a non-venomous snake and is commonly found in Srilanka.

Variegated Kukri snake - is a slender snake. The color of the snake varies considerably which has given its name. It prefers to live near where frogs spawn and leaf litter can be found. It is a very timid snake and flees away when confronted. It is found in Sri Lanka and in India. The Sri Lankan varieties are light brown with darker or buff colored stripes and a pearly brown underbelly. While the Indian varieties are have a darker or buff base coloring with black or yellowish markings. In south India, there is a belief that this snake is deadly poisonous. It is believed that the snake having bitten a person climbs the tree near to his pyre to watch his cremation and only descends after seeing the smoke rising from his funeral pyre. Another strange belief in the Malabar district of Kerala is that the snake can plunge its tail into the ground and assume the shape of a bow and hence it is attributed the name `villoonie`. In Malayalam, the word `villoo` means a bow.

Painted bronze back - it is a common species and can be found in a variety of habitats including shrubs, forests, back-beach habitats as well as parks and gardens. It is very nervous and flees swiftly when threatened or disturbed. This snake can be easily identified by its bronze head, black eye-stripe and cream lateral stripes along the length of the body. When threatened it will inflate its body slightly to reveal bluish or turquoise skin underlying the body scales. It is found from southern China, through Indochina and Thailand, to Peninsular Malaysia, the larger islands of Indonesia and the Philippines.

Golden tree - is described as a handsome snake. Despite its name, it has an attractive green or greenish-yellow on a black background. It is found in forests, plantations, agricultural areas and rural gardens. This snake is able to glide through the air. It is found in Burma, Thailand, Indochina and southern China to northern Peninsuar Malaysia.

Common wolf snake - is a common nocturnal snake, which has light to dark mud brown body with light colored bands. It is non-venomous and are often mistaken as kraits and killed. These snakes has the presence of an enlarged upper teeth and thus they got their name. These teethes helps them to grip lizards & geckos. Therefore, they found in tiled roof of houses. They are very good climbers.

Shaws wolf snake - this snake has close resemblance to its relative the common wolf snake. It also has a glossy dark brown color with yellow transverse stripes. It has a broad and flat snout. Its muscular body becomes active by nightfall and is capable of lighting fast movements. It is sluggish during the day. It is very timid and makes no attempt to attack even if it is harassed. If stumbled upon, it will timidly attempt to escape and if cornered coil itself up and hide its head amidst its thick coils to protect itself.

Travancore wood snake - it is a harmless snake, which is purplish or balck in color and has the presence of yellow crossbars on it. It is found on the hilly areas of southern India. It is distinguished by the loreal scarcely touching the internasals.

Keel back Snake - There are different types of keel backs. They are: the buffs stripped keel back, the olivaceous keel back, green keel back. They can be again classified into those living in waters and those living in fields. The keel backs that live in water are the cruelest among Indian snakes and those living in fields are gentlest ones.

Condanarous Sand snake - It is one of the poisonous snakes that are very dangerous. It has fangs on the back of the upper jaws. It inhabits in the green grasslands and in jungles.

Cat Snake- There are two types of cat snakes. They are the Indian Gamma Cat Snake and the Ceylon Cat Snake. They are mildly venomous snakes and their fang is at the rear. They belong to the family of colubridae snakes. They are typically known as cat eyed snake or just cat snake.

Common Green Whip Snake- As the name indicates the snake is green in color. The green color is produced by the interaction of a yellow pigment on the scales with the blue of the skin. This snake is mildly poisonous and has the habit of striking at the eyes. The Tamil translation of the snake is "eye pecking snake". On seeing a prey, it raises its fore body and coils in a zigzag manner and darts forward to catch the prey.

Water Snake - most of the water snakes have dark spots on their body. They are generally stout and their scales are keeled. There are two water snakes as the Schneider`s Smooth Water Snake and Dog-Faced Water Snake. The former is olivaceous-green or brown in color and its belly is lemon yellow in color. It is an aquatic species frequenting fresh and brackish water. The later is dark grey in color and its belly has greenish black spots. It is an estuarine species.

Indian Egg-Eating Snake - this snake closely parallels the African type of egg eating snakes. The Indian Egg-eating Snake is a rare species of egg-eating snake found in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. It is also known as Westermann`s snake. It has great skill in eating the contents inside the egg without wasting a single drop. However big the egg is, it can eat skillfully.

Kraits - there are two types of kraits known as the common Indian krait and the banded krait. Kraits are harmful variety of snakes. It is one of the deadliest among the poisonous snakes of the world. Death occurs in five to twelve hours after the bite of a common Indian krait. The banded krait is poisonous but there is no record of bite by this species. Its poison is less powerful than Cobra poisoning.

McClelland`s Coral Snake - these snakes are very rare. They are found up to 4000 m in the Himalayas. These snakes prefer to stay in heavy forests. It is an inoffensive and sluggish species and feeds mainly on snakes.

Cobra - the most recognizable feature of the cobra is the presence of the hood in them. The hood is the section of its neck, which it flattens outwards when it is in danger. Cobras vary in color from black or dark brown to yellow color. They kill their prey by injecting neurotoxin through their fangs. The common varieties of cobras are the Indian Cobra and the King Cobra.