Extremely Rare Legless Lizard Spotted For 4th Time In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The Snake Helpline has found an extremely rare and elusive legless lizard in Buddhakhol hill at Buguda in Ganjam district.

In December last year, Harish Padhi, a local rescuer from Buguda sent a photo to Subhendu Mallik, general secretary, Snake Helpline and Honorary Wildlife Warden, Khurda for identification. Though Subhendu was sure that it was not a snake and was aware about the limbless lizard occurring in the island of Chilika, he had never seen a photograph or a specimen before.

Then, a 4-member team of the Snake Helpline visited the new found habitat and fortunately found the legless lizard. They documented the limbless skink live by taking photographs and videos in its new found natural habitat. Later, it was released in the same spot.

A team of the Snake Helpline had to research the available literature, books, journal articles for 3 months. Then Subhendu wrote the exploration of Barkudia insularis in a Blog in the website of Snake Helpline https://snakehelpline.com/barkudia-insularis/.

This is the 4th sighting of the rare lizard in the state. The limbless skink was first found in Barkuda island and described as Barkudia Insularis, a new genus and new species by Nelson Annandale in 1917. This rare species of lizard has remained elusive for scientists and explorers for many years and was reported from a second location at Nandankanan Biological Park, Baranga, Odisha in 1979. However, no supportive photograph was published.

In 2003, while conducting a survey in Chilika lake, the officials from Chilika Development Authority had again documented the rare Barkudia Insularis from the same Barkuda island. Apart from Barkuda islands and Nandankanan Biological Park, the extremely rare lizard was not found anywhere in Odisha.

“The Barkuda Limbless Skink is so rare that no identifiable colour photograph or image is available in Google when we searched till date. No photographs are available in the largest database of reptiles in the world, the Reptile Database and the Reptiles of India database till date,” said Subhendu Mallik, general secretary of Snake Helpline.

Stating that the IUCN Redlist had listed Barkudia insularis as Critically Endangered species in 2010, Mallik said there is only one step left before extinction of the species.

Body and colour

Barkudia insularis is rather long with a slender, cylindrical body and a short tail. The head is small and dorso-ventrally flattened and the snout is wedge-shaped by means of which the lizard digs tunnels in loose earth with ease. Its colour is much variable. It is usually glossy brown above with a black spot on each scale which fuse to form from 8 to 14 longitudinal rows down the back and along the tail. The belly is coloured creamy white.

Basic differences between Barkudia Insularis and snake

At the first appearance, the limbless skinks are confused with small snakes. But it is not too difficult for a common man to differentiate between a limbless skink and a snake. Barkudia Insularis has eyelids which it can open or close with ease. On the other hand, snakes do not possess eyelids. The other common difference between a snake and Barkudia lizards are forked tongue and external ear holes, which are present in Barkudia Insularis and absent in snake.