An average of approximately 25 species of snakes recorded across at least four higher education institutions in India over the last two years has underscored the need for on-campus reptile conservation in a gradually urbanising world.
The latest study on snake diversity was conducted on the Tezpur University campus in north-central Assam’s Sonitpur district. The research yielded 64 snakes belonging to 15 species, representing 18.29% and 2.56% of the total species of Assam and India, respectively.
The study, conducted by Mahari Jiumin Basumatary, Anubhav Bhuyan, and Robin Doley, was published in the latest issue of the Journal of Threatened Taxa. The researchers are with Tezpur University’s Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, and the Department of Environmental Science.
“This level of ophidian diversity on the Tezpur University campus revealed by our study is relatively lower compared to other university campuses where similar studies were carried out,” the researchers noted.
They cited studies conducted on the campuses of Gauhati University in 2023, as well as Chennai’s Madras Christian College and Aizawl’s Mizoram University in 2024.
