[2] This species was first described as Silybura shorttii by British naturalist Richard Henry Beddome in 1863.

[4] It is found only in the Shevaroy Hills of Salem district in Tamil Nadu state in South India.

[3] For a long time, this species was misclassified into Uropeltis ceylanica, a snake endemic to the Western Ghats, till a recent taxonomic study[5] proved it to be a distinct species with a very narrow geographic range.

[1] U. shorttii is a small, dark bluish black burrowing snake, with distinct yellow crossbands.

The nasals are pierced by the nostrils, divided by the rostral anteriorly but in contact with each other posteriorly.

The tail shield is distinctly truncate above, mildly concave, circumscribed and ridged, covered with 30–31 (30.5±0.7), bi-carinate and tri-carinate thickened scales.

[1] U. shorttii is named after its collector Dr. John Shortt, a physician in the Madras Army, who donated the type specimens to Col. Richard Henry Beddome, who first described this species.