This was the trip that really changed the direction of Captive & Field Herpetology. Initially the entirety of the C&FH plan was to focus on our journal but after meeting victims of snakebite and witnessing the dangers of everyday life for the poorest people in India, we decided to join forces with Vishal Santra of Simultala Conservationists.

This trip was an eye opener to say the least. Seeing many species in the wild for the first time brought huge amounts of joy from a herper’s point of view. But, seeing how common some of these venomous snake species are in human dominated habitats such as agricultural fields really demonstrated the need to prevent snakebite with methods which to this day, are not clear.

During this excursion we travelled from Buxa Fort in the Alipurduar district of West Bengal to Nalikul, Vishal’s home town. Day one brought us a banded krait (Bungarus fasciatus), practically outside our door followed by some tough mountainous herping due to cold weather. Later in, we were lucky enough to find 13 Russell’s vipers (Daboia russelii) in a couple of hours searching one field. One of these was found to be sharing a burrow with a yellow monitor (Varanus flavescens), a species high on our bucket list which we did not expect to come across.

From wild rhino encounters to an undescribed species of frog, this trip was incredible in numerous ways. Keep an eye on our journal issues for a full run down of this excursion as we include one field report per issue. Also, feel free to contact us for any information or discussion in regards to any of our expeditions.