Only two snake taxa from the Siwalik Group were previously described. Lydekker (1885) identified four isolated, incomplete vertebrae as Python cf. P. molurus from the Siwalik Group of the Punjab. Examination of this material (BMNH R 614) demonstrates that reference to Python is incorrect, and all specimens are referable to Acrochordus dehmi. Hoffstetter (1964) described Acrochordus dehmi and Python sp. from Siwalik sediments of the Potwar Plateau. The hypodigm of A. dehmi, as reported by Hoffstetter (1964), consists of 156 specimens recovered from 16 localities from the Chinji, Nagri, and Dhok Pathan formations during surveys of the Potwar Plateau led by Richard Dehm in 1955-56. West et al. (1991) reported A. dehmi from the Siwalik section of Nepal, and Rage et al. (2001) recorded the taxon from the upper-middle Siwalik Group of Jammu, India. Hoffstetter (1964) concluded that the Siwalik Group represented primarily aquatic environments based on the size of the A. dehmi sample, assumptions of ecological similarity between A. dehmi and extant Acrochordus, and the lack of any additional demonstrably terrestrial snake taxa aside from Python from the Siwalik Group. Employing the same fundamental assumption of ecological similarity, and based on the high frequency of A. dehmi specimens in the Siwalik record, Head (1998) concluded that A. dehmi possessed the derived, low-energy physiology of extant Acrochordus, which is expressed ecologically by high population densities (Shine 1986a).
With the exception of a single reference to Colubroidea indeterminate (Rage in Pilbeam et al. 1979), no other snake taxa have been described from the Siwalik Group on the Potwar Plateau, and no attempt has been made to examine the relationship between Siwalik Group snake faunas and environmental change, despite collecting efforts by researchers from multiple countries spanning a time period of over 150 years.