Chennai Crocodile Bank

During the month of April this year, I happened to be at Chennai (Madras). One day my extended family members evinced interest to visit Mahabalipuram (A World Heritage Site) and wanted me to show them around. I readily accepted for they believed in my  credibility  to be their guide. While proceeding to Mahabalipuram, after travelling 45 kilometres, there is the Madras Crocodile Bank. Since I could not visit this place earlier, I decided  to make a short break thereat. We parked our vehicle at the parking slot and entered the sanctuary after buying our tickets.

There was a time when the crocodile population in India was dwindling. Some feared that they may also become species near  extinction. With a view to protect and conserve crocodiles, alligators and other reptiles this farm was established way back in 1976. Incidentally this is a private initiative and not by the Government. The credit goes to Romulus Whitaker, the famous herpetologist, who was instrumental in its establishment along with few like minded friends.

To begin with some 30 crocodiles were brought here and due to the conservation efforts the population is now around 5000. Perhaps now it is going to be a problem of plenty.  Apart from the Indian species of Crocodiles and Alligators, their cousins from around the world have been brought in. However they seem to enjoy better and spacious surroundings as compared to their Indian counter parts. This centre is claimed to be largest zoo of such reptiles in the whole world.

Incidentally the water bodies as also the whole place stinks and one has to  muster a lot of endurance to withstand. While searching for an answer I found the place has very many big shady trees and thousands of cranes have made them their home. Their droppings are the reasons behind the problem. While visiting this place one needs to wear a cap or cover the head for protection.  

As is well known, India is also a home for venomous snakes. There is a community in Tamilnadu known as “Irulas” who are very skilled in catching venomous snakes. To conserve their art and provide them a kind of livelihood, Mr. Whitaker got them united and formed a Cooperative Society. They have a separate enclosure in the sanctuary where they regularly bring the snakes and and keep them in pots.  They extract the venom which costs anywhere between Rs.1000 to Rs.5000 per gm. Visitors are also shown the process involved.

 

There was a strange visitor at home

This happened on the 21st August. I was preparing a post for my Hindi Blog and it was already half past ten at night. Suddenly I heard my son calling me and there was a kind of emergency in his tone. I ran down and found him pointing towards the main entrance. There was a curled snake lying between the door and the wall. It so happened that he was about to close the main door when he spotted the reptile. I pacified him and suggested not to panic. I asked him to bring the camera, to which he retorted, what dad, there is a snake in the house and you want to have a photo session. He did bring the camera and I took few snaps randomly.

Because of the noise from my house, my immediate neighbor dropped in and got scared. Then there was an influx of young and old with sticks and all that. I requested people not to hurt the creature which has factually strayed in seeking shelter. The same snake was spotted  a day earlier at night in front of the main gate of a house adjacent to mine, remaining closed.  Up to midnight people were hunting for the poor thing but it could escape un hurt.

I had some basic  ideas about the Indian Snakes but the common view emerging from the small gathering of people from my campus was that it was a Python. In that case I would have ventured to catch it by its head and put it in a sack. When I had a closer look and particularly when it moved its head, it occurred to me that this is the deadliest variety, a Viper, referred to as Russels Viper. It is also sluggish but when threatened  could become extremely agile and attack. Among all the Indian Poisonous snakes, Viper’s venom is deadliest as the venom required to kill a person is the least when compared to Cobra and Krait. However, normally, they  do not attack humans and it also does not inject the fatal dose required for a human to die of the bite. As compared to this the Cobra injects a much larger quantity of venom per bite.

At my request, the snake catchers were summoned. They came in their van. Pretended to be scared of catching it telling people around that they can catch cobras by hand but not this one. This spits venom, very very dangerous and so on. Then they asked for a large container with a lid, which was provided. The Viper was not willing to get into the trap. It moved forward but obstacles were created and finally it was in the container with lid tightened with a rope. We heard its angry hissings. It was thus taken away providing the relief we needed but at a price.