On the dorsal surface of young monitors, there are a series of yellow spots with dark transverse bars connecting them.

[5] Bengal monitors have external nostril openings (nares) that is slit-like and oriented near horizontal, and positions between the eye and the tip of the snout.

Bengal monitors have fat deposits in the tail and body that serve them in conditions when prey are not easily available.

[12] It is found in river valleys in eastern Iran, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma.

The closely related species, the clouded monitor, occurs in southern Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra, Java and the Sunda Islands.

[13] The species is mainly distributed through lower elevations below an altitude of 1500 metres, and is found both in dry semiarid desert habitats to moist forest.

Females dig a nest hole in level ground or a vertical bank and lay the eggs inside, filling it up and using their snouts to compact the soil.

Invertebrate prey mostly consists of beetles and their larvae followed by orthopterans, but also maggots, caterpillars, centipedes, scorpions, crabs, crayfish, snails, termites, ants, and earwigs.

Larger individuals in addition to invertebrates also eat a large amount of vertebrate prey, including toads and frogs and their eggs, fish, lizards, snakes, rats, squirrels, hares, musk shrews, and birds.

Diet may differ based on season and locality, for example, they often forage for fish and aquatic insects in streams during the summer, and individuals in Andhra Pradesh eat mostly frogs and toads.

[citation needed] Bengal monitors will also scavenge carrion, and sometimes congregate when feeding on large carcasses such as that of deer.

[27][28] The Bengal monitor has been assessed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List ; the wild population is decreasing as it is hunted for both consumption and medicinal purposes as well as for the skin.

[1] The dried and dyed hemipenes of Bengal monitors, and less often yellow and water monitors, are frequently trafficked and illegally sold in India and online under the deceptive term 'Hatha Jodi', where it is claimed to be the root of a supposed rare Himalayan plant in order to fool buyers and retailers, and to disguise the trade from wildlife authorities.

[29] In India, the body oil of monitor lizards is sold for thousands of Indian rupees to residents in metropolitan cities as a treatment for rheumatism.

[32] Monitor lizards are hunted, and their body fat, extracted by boiling, is used in a wide range of folk remedies.

Killing a land monitor is usually considered a cowardly act, and is frequently referred to folklore along with other harmless reptiles such as rat snakes (Garandiya).

[34][35] A clan in Maharashtra called Ghorpade claims that the name is derived from a legendary founder Tanaji Malusare who supposedly scaled a fort wall using a monitor lizard tied to a rope.

[36] The Bengal monitor's belly skin has traditionally been used in making the drum head for the kanjira (known as Dimadi in Maharashtra), a South Indian percussion instrument.