Volume 26, Issue 78, July - December, 2025

Sea snake occurrences along the Mainland Indian coastline in two decades –a preliminary study using citizen-science photo posts

Joselin Blessy¹, Ganesh SR^2♦

¹Dept. of Ecology & Environment, Pondicherry University, Puducherry 605 014, India
²Kalinga Foundation, Guddekere, Agumbe, Shivamogga, Karnataka 577 411, India

^♦Corresponding Author
Ganesh SR, Kalinga Foundation, Guddekere, Agumbe, Shivamogga, Karnataka 577 411, India

ABSTRACT

We analysed the sea snake posts in iNaturalist from the mainland Indian coasts. We found a total of 319 posts representing 14 species, across a 20-year period from 2006 to 2025. Many species were rarely represented with singletons (n=5 spp.) and doubletons (n=3 spp.). The commonest species in the dataset was Hydrophis schistosus, amounting to 63.32% of total posts. The Maharashtra coast emerged as the most dominant in terms of posts, amounting to 48.58% of total posts. The recent five years (2021-25) logged as much as 73.58%, and the post-monsoon season recorded the highest seasonal frequency (36.67%).

Keywords: Dominant species, states, posts, rank abundance, relative abundance, season

Species, 2026, 27(79), e11s3271

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Published: 09 May 2026