However a 2020 study found it to form a distinct clade with about 4 other species also previously classified in Monopterus, and the genus Ophichthys was thus revived to contain them.

[5] In the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve, this species is known from small rock-filled puddles that dot the lateritic plateaus such as the Kargaon plateau during the monsoon season.

[7] They are nocturnal and during the daytime, they stay buried underneath boulders or hang to tree roots along the edges of streams.

Habitat alterations caused by urbanization, deforestation, and recreational activities on the mountain tops are common in the northern Western Ghats, and can severely affect the fish.

Other plateau populations are affected by blasting to make way for plantations, quarrying for laterite rock, use of plateaus for residential purposes, and use as a dumping site for city waste.