Bengal Monitor

The Bengal monitor, or Indian monitor, is a large lizard that can reach 175 cm, of which the tail is about 100 cm; heavy individuals weigh around 7 kg, and males are generally larger than females. Adults are light brown or grey with fine dark speckling. Young ones are far more colourful, with dark crossbars on the neck, throat and back and rows of yellow spots. Its slit-like nostrils, set between the eye and the tip of the snout, can be closed to keep out water and debris. The scales on its sides carry tiny pits, especially in males, linked to glands in the skin (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is usually solitary and lives mostly on the ground, though the young often climb trees. It shelters in burrows it digs itself, in crevices in rocks and buildings or in old termite mounds. It is active by day, shy and very alert: it can spot a person moving about 250 m away. It feeds mainly on beetles and their larvae, and larger monitors also take frogs, fish, lizards, snakes, rodents, hares and birds. The main breeding season is June to September; females dig a nest hole, often with decoy holes nearby, and lay about 20 eggs that may take six to eight months to hatch (Wikipedia, general species account).

The Bengal monitor is found almost throughout India, from Gujarat, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir to Assam and Mizoram and south to Kerala and Tamil Nadu (Reptile Database, via Catalogue of Life). It is protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, but is still regularly killed for its meat, blood and oil, and its genitals are sold as a charm and supposed remedy; in 2021, for example, forest officers in Bhubaneswar seized seven monitors from traffickers (Down To Earth 2021).