Tugong snake has been included in the List of Beneficial or Important Economic and Scientific Research Terrestrial Wild Animals Protected by the State issued by the State Forestry Administration of China on August 1, 2000. It has been included in the 2013 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species ver3.1—Near Threatened (NT), and has been included in the China Biodiversity Red List—Vertebrate Volume, and the assessment level is Vulnerable ( VU).

The Tugong snake is distributed in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Liaoning in China , Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Gansu, Guangdong (South Australia) and other places, the snakes on the famous Lushun Snake Island are almost all Tugong snakes.