We were on our regular morning walk when I noticed a very huge fat earthworm across a road but the moment it moved I realized that it was not a worm but a blind snake. However this was the biggest blind snake I had seen to date!! Thankfully I had a camera with me and I clicked a few photos. I particularly wanted a macro of the rudimentary eye. When we returned home I got out “The book of Indian Reptile and Amphibians” to see the scientific name of the snake.
It was then I noticed that the specimen in the photos was not the usual Common worm or Blind snake but a Beaked Blind Snake Rhinotyphlops acutus
The book informed that Beaked Blind Snake is largest among the Indian Worm snakes and can grow upto 600mm, the one I had was about 400mm. They are they only species with a beaked snout. Found commonly in the peninsular India south of the Gangetic plain but rarer south of latitude 16ºN. An interesting folklore / myth associated with blind snake is that they enter ears of people sleeping on the ground. this has resulted in the Tamil name of the snake Sevi pamboo, literally translated it means ear snake.
A bit of search on the net shows that there are almost no macro pictures of the species on the net. I must get this to wikipedia and then fotopedia.