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Hi all,
Hope to visit Delhi, India in 2015 but cannot find much info regarding R&A's in that region. Target species has to be the spectacaled or indian cobra Naja naja. I am presuming that snake seaching this area may be more productive during the monsoon season as widlife have to move to higher ground to escape floods. This reduces areas for searching. Has anyone had experiences in this area ??

The question about "rainy season vs dry season" is very interesting in my opinion, and not so easy to answer.

Probably there are many species which are actually easier to be met during rainy season.
Two tropical islands as instances:
- Havelock Island in the Andamans: during rainy times (especially at night), I've seen many specimens of snakes, mainly of 2 species (Xenochrophis melanzostus and Bungarus andamanensis).
- Tioman Island in Malaysia: I've not seen many snakes during dry season, a part from many babies reticulated pythons. But local people told us that during the rainy season it's far more common to see snakes.

On the contrary, when I wanted to visit Bali in search for the king cobra, the local herpetologist Duncan Macrae (if I remember well his name) wrote to me to avoid rainy season on that island, if I wanted to join him looking for this species. Same words said to me in Langkawi (Malaysia) the herpetologist and nature guide Othman Ayeb.

And in fact, in southern India, O.hannah is easy met during dry season (in march), because this is the mating period for this species.

I was in India on three different occasions, but always in Agumbe (Karnataka), and so I cannot say anything more specific about the Delhi area.

My thought is anyway very simple: every season has its advantages and its disadvantages.
If you are in the tropics during wet season, drive at night (even if it's raining!) and wait for the few sunny moments during the day.
If you are in the tropics during dry season, drive at night (again... ) and wait for rain and for the first sunny moments after rain...

I'm very interested in other opinions and experiences about this topic!