by Badri Chatterjee, Hindustan Times, 8 August 2020
A rare two-headed Russell’s Viper was rescued from Kalyan’s Gandhare Road area on Thursday. Experts said the growth of the two heads was a genetic abnormality similar to conjoined or Siamese twins in humans. These snakes have very low survival rates in the wild. The forest department will hand over the snake to the Haffkine Institute in Parel.
“According to herpetologist Varad Giri, who is the director at NIDUS – an organisation working on research on amphibians and reptiles – a developing embryo in its early stage divides”.
