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Animal profile

Indian Cobra

Naja naja

ReptiliaFarmland, village margins, grassland, scrub and forest edge across the Indian subcontinentLeast Concern

Field profile

The Indian cobra is a medium-sized elapid famous for the spectacle marking on the back of its hood. It is common in cultivated land where rodents concentrate. It is one of the species responsible for most snakebite deaths in South Asia.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2026-01-31

Indian Cobra

A charmed cobra is watching, not listening

Snakes have no external ear and hear airborne sound poorly. A cobra rising to a snake charmer's pungi is tracking the moving instrument as a threat and holding a defensive posture, not swaying in time to a tune.

Read with evidence →

Indian Cobra | Daily Animal Facts