The ventrals number 175-202; the anal is entire; and the subcaudals are 56–76, usually double, but sometimes single.

It is a hill-dwelling species, preferring high-elevation wet forests.

It occurs in the Western Ghats across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, southern Gujarat and southern parts of the Eastern Ghats in Tamil Nadu.

[5] Populations from the Eastern Ghats and Deccan Plateau in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka previously mistaken to be this species, have now been classified as a distinct species Lycodon deccanensis.

It prefers forests, both evergreen and deciduous, on windward plains and hills.