[News] From hunter to guardian: How the ‘Snakeman of India’ found his way into wildlife conservation

[𝐌𝐑-𝐀𝐇𝐌𝐄𝐃 体]

Moving from America to India as a child in the 1950s would likely be a challenging experience for most, but for Romulus Whitaker it was a dream come true — he had arrived in “the land of cobras,” he explained to CNN. Whitaker would go on to earn the nickname “Snakeman of India,” and spend more than six decades dedicated to reptile research and conservation. He’s written several books on snakes, spearheaded a lifesaving anti-venom program, and launched wildlife research stations throughout the country. His field work with snakes and crocodiles ultimately led his conservation efforts to help save India’s rainforests. Today, Whitaker’s focus is on educating Indians on how to protect themselves from snakes — part of a national campaign to reduce the snakebite mortality rate. CNN spoke with Whitaker recently at his home in Mysore, southwestern India, around the release of the first volume of his memoir: “Snakes, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll: My Early Years.” The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Whitaker: I started out as a very young lad in northern New York state, turning over rocks and finding bugs and stuff, until I found a snake, and it was love at first sight. It really started then. But I must blame or thank my mother for when I first brought a snake home. She said, ‘wow, how beautiful.’ And now, which mother would do that? Not very many. Then, when my mother married Rama Chattopadhyay and we moved to India, that was something that opened up the world to me. Can you imagine an eight-year-old arriving in Bombay and being able to go out into the jungles of India? These are dreams that I had when I was a little kid, which came alive. CNN: What does a herpetologist do and what was your journey to becoming one? Romulus Whitaker (L) pictured here with mentor Bill Haast (R) at the Miami Serpentarium, where Whitaker learned how to extract venom from a snake. Romulus Whitaker (L) pictured here with mentor Bill Haast (R) at the Miami Serpentarium, where Whitaker learned how to extract venom from a snake. Heyward Clamp Whitaker: A herpetologist is a strange person who studies reptiles. I’ve concentrated most of my work on snakes and crocodiles, but I am very interested in all the others … the turtles, the lizards, and of course the amphibians, the frogs and toads. I’ve been doing this forever, ever since I was four years old when I picked up my first snake. [In 1960] I was going to college in America, but I flunked out. Then I got a job at the Miami Serpentarium and worked for this gentleman [Bill Haast] who handled king cobras with the greatest of ease and extracted their venom. That was part of the love affair that I generated for king cobras. But I had always yearned to come back to India and get out to Western Ghats, where I knew king cobras still lived, and start studying them. In 1969, I set up India’s first snake park, the Madras Snake Park. And we’ve learned more about king cobra behavior and about their wonderful lifestyle than had ever been known by anybody before. CNN: Have you ever been scared of a snake? Whitaker: I don’t think I’ve ever been scared of a snake. I’ve been scared of myself sometimes doing stupid things. I saw a black-tailed [snake] disappearing into the bushes, and I thought, ‘ah, big rat snake.’ And I dove on it, typical football tackle, grabbed it by the tail and suddenly this hooded snake rises up over me and I looked up and said, ‘oh no, I think I’ve caught the wrong tail.’ And I let it go. It was a king cobra, the first one I had ever found. It was scary. Okay, I am scared sometimes. CNN: How did you first get involved with the indigenous Irula tribe to help create anti-venom to treat people bitten by snakes? Whitaker: The Irulas are an aboriginal tribe here in South India. Their expertise is finding and catching snakes and their specialty [was] catching snakes for their skins. But they had run out of a way to make a living because the snakeskin industry had been banned [in 1972]. So we hatched an idea together to set up a venom cooperative, the Irula Snake Catchers Cooperative, wherein they would catch snakes from the wild, extract the venom, and then release the snakes back to the wild. And the venom, it was used to make anti-venom to save millions of lives.


https://edition.cnn.com/world/asia/romulus-whitaker-snakeman-india-spc-c2e/index.html