Bengal monitor (Varanus bengalensis), also known as the Common Indian Monitor, is a monitor lizard found throughout Bangladesh and India. It measures up to 75 cm in body length with the tail about 100 cm in length. It feeds on small terrestrial vertebrates, ground birds and their eggs, arthropods and fish.
Although not uncommon, Monitor lizards are killed for their meat and skins and are threatened in many places by hunting.
The lizard is known as Guishaap or Goshaap in West Bengal and Bangladesh, and as ghorpad in Maharashtra . The lizards have strong claws and in some parts of India this has led to the myth that they can cling strongly to surfaces. A persistent myth that has little support from zoology or history is that Shivaji's general Tanaji Malusare used a monitor with ropes attached for climbing the walls of the Sinhagad fort.
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