Wild Things Animals

King cobras may be riding trains across India [COMIC]

Serpentine stowaways put both themselves and human passengers in danger

A hand drawn illustration showing a woman sitting on a train. She looks up from her phone to side-eye the passenger sitting beside her — a snake that is reading a newspaper.

Researchers think king cobras may be lured onto trains by rodents drawn to food that passengers leave behind.

J. Wendel

By Maria Temming and JoAnna Wendel

Dikansh S. Parmar rescued a snake for the first time in middle school. It happened at his karate class in Surat, India. Someone spotted a baby cobra among a nearby pile of construction materials and wanted to kill it. But Parmar stopped them. His dad had rescued snakes, and he had a rough idea what to do. He took a rod from the construction site and used it to coax the baby snake inside a water bottle.

Parmar was lucky. The snake didn’t harm him. And people without proper training shouldn’t approach snakes. But this encounter inspired him to become a trained snake rescuer as a teen. Parmar is now also a herpetologist who studies snakes. He works at the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change in Bonn, Germany. Recently, Parmar combined his snake rescue and science knowledge to discover something curious about his favorite snakes: king cobras.

Western Ghats King Cobras (Ophiophagus kaalinga), his team found, might ride trains across the Indian state of Goa. Parmar and his colleagues shared their evidence for this January 26 in Biotropica.

illustrated text reads "Wild Things: A graphic tale" with animals drawn around the letters
Text: Snakes on a Train. Written by Maria Temming. Illustrated by JoAnna Wendel. Image: A woman sitting on a train looks up from her phone to side-eye the passenger sitting beside her — a snake that is reading a newspaper.
Text (above images): In 2023, Dikansh S. Parmar received a shocking late-night phone call from a friend. Image (left): A man in a forested area is on the phone. He says, “Guess who rescued a king cobra?!” Image (right): A man sits up in bed, holding a phone to his ear. He says, “What? No way!” Text (below images): Parmar and his friend are both trained snake rescuers. But it was very rare to catch a king cobra — the world’s longest venomous snake.
Text (above image): Western Ghats King Cobras are found in the Indian state of Goa, where Parmar’s friend lived. But these snakes are not known to live in his village of Chandor. Image: A map of India shows the state of Goa on the western coast. A map of Goa shows the village of Chandor slightly left to the center of the state. Text (below image): Parmar studies snakes at the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change in Bonn, Germany. Intrigued by the rogue king cobra, he traveled to Chandor to see where it had been found.
Text (above image): Railway workers had spotted the king cobra below a train station platform. Image: Parmar stands with a notebook and pen with a group of railway workers. The group are standing in a grassy area below a train station platform. A sign beside the platform reads, “Chandor, Goa.” Railway Worker 1 says to Parmar: “It was terrifying! Your friend is a real hero!” Railway Worker 2 says: “I still think I could have taken it.” Railway Worker 3 says: “Uh, it was a 13-foot venomous snake.” Railway Worker 1 says: “Yeah, you asked me to kill a spider for you yesterday.” Text (below image): The scene reminded Parmar of another snake rescue he’d performed in 2017.
Text (above image): A train station employee in Surat, India, had called Parmar at midnight, insisting that he come catch a cobra loose on one of the trains. Image: Parmar grabs the tail of a snake sitting on the seat of a crowded train car. Parmar says: “Sorry buddy, you’re coming with me.” The snake says: “But it’s not my stop!” Text (below image): At the time, Parmar didn’t think much about the snake beyond getting it safely off the train and himself back to bed. Now, it made him wonder if the king cobra in Chandor was a railway stowaway, too — and if other king cobras ever rode trains.
Text (above image): Parmar and his colleagues made a map of where Western Ghats King Cobras had been rescued across Goa from 2002 to 2024. Almost all had been found near their preferred habitats: cool, rainy forests. Image: A map of Goa shows where the most suitable king cobra habitats exist in the state. The eastern half of the state contains more suitable habitats than the western half. Black lines show where rail lines cut across the state, and red dots near some of those lines show where king cobras have been rescued. Text (below image): But five king cobras had been found near Goa’s more arid western coast — all a short distance from railroad tracks.
Text (above image): Parmar’s team also found news reports and social media posts about other snakes, including a king cobra, that had been spotted on trains. Image: Parmar looks down at his phone and says, “Whoa.” A news report with a video is on the phone’s screen. The news headline reads: “Watch a 10-foot king cobra removed from a train!” A video accompanying the report shows a railway worker trying to take a snake off a train car. The snake says, “You human paparazzi are relentless!” Text (below image): This strengthened the scientists’ suspicion that Western Ghats King Cobras were accidentally riding trains across Goa.
Text (above image): Food left on board by passengers and leftovers thrown outside train windows onto tracks can attract rats, which attract snakes — including king cobras, which eat other snakes. Image: A train platform bustles with people. A railway worker yells, “All aboard!” Meanwhile, a snake slithers onto one of the cars of the train parked at the platform. The snake says, “Don’t mind if I do!” Text (below image): Snakes might also seek shelter inside trains during the heavy rains of monsoon season.
Text (above image): To test their hypothesis that king cobras catch trains, Parmar’s team could gather more data with cameras at railway stations or by outfitting snakes with tracking devices. Image: Parmar sets up a camera near railroad tracks. Two snakes are hiding in the grass nearby, watching. One snake says to the other, “You weren’t kidding about the human paparazzi.”
Text (above image): Parmar wouldn’t be surprised if snakes travel by train. He and his colleagues in Surat have rescued Eastern bronzeback tree snakes that most likely arrived in town on trucks. Image: A map of India shows a path from Darjeeling to Surat that spans 1,700 kilometers. Below the map, a truck driver waves to a man pushing a cart of sapling trees. Two snakes are hiding in the leaves of those trees. One snake says to the other, “Why do humans complain about roadtrips? This service is excellent!”
Text (above image): But the fewer Western Ghats King Cobras riding trains, the better. King cobra bites are deadly. Unfortunately, snakes can’t read ‘keep out’ signs. Image: A snake slithers up to railroad tracks. Beside the tracks is a sign. On the sign is a snake with a big red X through it. The snake says, “They say ‘X marks the spot!’ I must be in the right place!” Text (below image): So it’s up to human passengers to clean up leftovers — and minimize how much construction cuts through king cobras’ forest habitats — to avoid tempting the snakes on board.
All: J. Wendel

Power Words

More About Power Words

arid: A description of dry areas of the world, where the climate brings too little rainfall or other precipitation to support much plant growth.

biodiversity: (short for biological diversity) The number and variety of species found within a localized geographic region.

colleague: Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.

data: Facts and/or statistics collected together for analysis but not necessarily organized in a way that gives them meaning. For digital information (the type stored by computers), those data typically are numbers stored in a binary code, portrayed as strings of zeros and ones.

forest: An area of land covered mostly with trees and other woody plants.

habitat: The area or natural environment in which an animal or plant normally lives, such as a desert, coral reef or freshwater lake. A habitat can be home to thousands of different species.

hypothesis: (v. hypothesize) A proposed explanation for a phenomenon. In science, a hypothesis is an idea that must be rigorously tested before it is accepted or rejected.

monsoon: A system of winds that influences the climate of a large area. In southern Asia, monsoons blow from the southwest in the summer and usually bring heavy rains.

rogue: An animal that wanders alone, outside its herd or the community into which it was born. Or anything, even a planet or galaxy, that unexpectedly travels alone and far from where it would be expected.

social media: Digital media that allow people to connect with each other (often anonymously) and to share information. Examples include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp.

Citations

Journal:​ D.S. Parmar et al. Snakes on trains: Railways may sway Goa's king cobra distribution. Biotropica. Vol. 58, January 2026. doi: 10.1111/btp.70157.

About Maria Temming

Maria Temming is the Assistant Managing Editor at Science News Explores. She has bachelor's degrees in physics and English, and a master's in science writing.

About JoAnna Wendel

JoAnna Wendel is a freelance science writer and cartoonist in Portland, Ore. She loves to make comics about all types of science, but she especially loves drawing planets, invertebrates and sea creatures. When she's not drawing, JoAnna is probably reading, hiking or hanging out with her cat, Pancake.

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