Crocodile Dandy

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Romulas Whitaker is a conservationist with a difference. Rom's heart beats for some of the most venomous and dangerous creatures on Earth. Founder of the Madras Snake Park and the Madras Crocodile Bank, this 'American-Indian' tells his story to Indira Parthasarathy

Snake love

Almost all children are initially fascinated by reptiles and snakes; it’s the parents who freak them out. In my case, I have a mother who was extremely supportive and just as fascinated as I was with snakes. And the advantage I had was that we lived in a place where there were no venomous snakes (northern NY State). By the time I was four-five years old, I was bringing snakes home. And the encouragement she gave and buying me children’s books on snakes was what set the ball rolling.

Stint abroad

I came to India (Bombay) with my mother and Indian stepfather and then went abroad for my studies. I was a merchant sea-man; a waiter, did all kinds of American odd-jobs, but the professional aspect of my career really started when I worked for the Miami Serpentarium (MS). There’s a guy there – now 95-97 yrs old and still handling snakes – Bill Haast, who had at one time the biggest venom production centre in the world. It was basically a combination of a reptile exhibit like Croc Bank, but also a venom production centre, which is like the Irula Co-operative. We were all snake catchers. We were like the “white tribals.” Except we went out in cars. I learnt how to extract venom, process venom, and learnt about the market for venom and that’s what I taught the Irulas here.

On staying on in India

I grew up here and I felt much more at home than anywhere else. I think the challenge and interest of working with reptiles here was much more than in the US. While there are thousands of people doing it there, in India when I set up the Snake Park in ’69, there were only the tribals doing it and the snake charmers. Now though, snake rescuers are there aplenty – my friend Anees Mohammed in Bangalore, Snake Park in Mysore, Gerry Martin – large range of people interested in snakes as compared to those days. My peer group was the Irulas and they taught me a lot about stuff in the field. I might have taught them how to process venom, but they taught me all about how to find snakes which is a good thing for any budding herpetologist.


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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).


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