035. Romulus Whitaker: Conserving snakes and crocodiles

Romulus Whitaker

Whitaker to the help of the Irulas

The Irulas in Tamil Nadu, India, are expert snake catchers. For long they were catching hundreds of snakes and selling them to the flourishing skin trade. When the trade in snakeskin was banned, they lost their livelihood. At that point, Romulus Whitaker entered their lives. He helped them set up the Irula Cooperative Society for extracting snake venom and selling it to the institutes that make life saving anti-venom. It was a win-win formula, since the killing of snakes stopped and the Irulas had a profitable occupation.

Whitaker and wildlife

Romulus Whitaker came to India when he was seven. From his childhood, he had a natural affinity for snakes and in fact for all wildlife. When he was a school student in Kodaikanal, he used to wander in the Palani Hills and picked up the observation skills needed for dealing with wildlife. Later, he learnt snake catching from Irulas and crocodile-catching from the natives of Papua New Guinea.

Snake Park and Crocodile Park

In 1972, Whitaker and some friends set up the Madras Snake Park in Chennai. Most of the snake-keepers in the Park are Irula tribals. The Park has many species of Indian snakes, all the three species of Indian crocodiles, four species of exotic crocodiles, and three species of Indian turtles. Many species of reptiles including endangered species like the Indian python have been bred in captivity in the Snake Park. The offspring have been either released into the wild or made available for exchange with other Zoos.

Whitaker next established the Crocodile Bank, also in Chennai. In the early 1970’s the crocodile was facing extinction in the country. The Crocodile Bank supplied breeding populace for restarting the species in Tamil Nadu as well as in the other parts of the country. Later, it became an international Crocodile Bank, gathering species that were endangered in other countries as well.

The Bank now has crocodiles from all over the world and has become a gene pool for all species. At the same time it is also a vibrant educational institution, because over 500,000 visitors come here every year. For the first time they encounter crocodiles as a non-menacing, interesting, and potentially viable animal, in terms of their ecological diversity.

Whitaker was awarded the Padma Sri (the fourth highest civilian award) by the Government of India for his work done in the field of Wild Life Conservation in the year 2018. Whitaker’s life and work show that a single individual can make enormous contribution to biodiversity conservation through passion and dedication.

Afterword: You can find a number of videos featuring Romulus Whitaker on YouTube including this TED talk.