The natural habitats of the king cobra are in decline and in man-animal conflicts, the latter doesn’t win. Intelligent and deadly, the cobra faces an uncertain feature.
Rom Whitaker, cobra expert, searches for the perfect sanctuary for these endangered snakes in the rainforests of Western Ghats. His work and observations have been documented and the film, King Cobra and I, would be aired today, (November 18) on Sony BBC Earth’s Wild Wild India Anthology.
Gowri Shankar, who has worked with Whitaker in the past, and has been featured in several wildlife documentaries like the King and I, Secrets of the King Cobra, tells us more about his work with the species.
Shankar is currently working as founder director, Kalinga Centre for Rainforest Ecology (KCRE), Kalinga Foundation, an environmental education centre and an NGO focusing on ecological research and conservation respectively. Excerpts:
You used to spend days at the zoo watching the king cobras instead of attending college. What were those interactions like? What did you learn about their behaviour?
That is true and those interactions were my first learning about animal behaviour. I spent hours observing their movement in the enclosure, the resting places they chose at different times of the day, their interaction with one another and more.
I would wait for them to be fed, where the animal handler would drop in a rat snake into the enclosure and the king would hunt it down and feed. This was very interesting to watch.
Another interesting aspect I observed was the confident movement of the larger snake as compared to careful movements of the shorter (probably younger) one which tried to avoid crossing paths. The most amazing aspect of my observation was the way they locked their eyes with the handler or me.
How do series like King Cobra and I help in raising awareness amongst the people?
Videos are the mediums that people welcome these days. Be it on social media or television, everybody wants a video first and text-only later. Hence series like these are highly relevant and rewarding now. How much ever we try to reach out to people through our talks and outreach programme, it is hard to beat the reach that videos can bring about.
I feel we need to create more such videos in local languages. Kids in cities are inspired by these videos and many aspire to take the environment and conservation as a career choice. If we can make the videos in local languages, kids in rural areas will have equal opportunities and inspiration. Most importantly it will instill pride among these people where nature still thrives and yet to be exploited totally. If these children can take up these causes, they will be faster changemakers than anybody else.
In some previous interviews, you have touched upon the ethical handling of cobras. Can you elaborate on that?
Ethical handling has become far more relevant today than ever. With the surge of programmes on television on snake rescue and capture, more and more people are coming forward to try their hand at it without prior knowledge or experience. What they do not realise is the person on screen has several years of experience before they appear there. Hence handling snakes unnecessarily, posing with venomous snakes and posting on social media has become rampant. Many youngsters have died and several severely injured because of snake bites while attempting such glamorous feats.
This was one of the reasons why I started conducting the STORM (Scientific Training on Reptile Management) workshops where I train people on the right and ethical rescue and relocation of snakes. Rapid urbanisation brings with it an ever-increasing human-snake conflict situation. It is important to educate and train people so that snakes and humans can co-exist.
Can you explain the conservation work in this field? Where does India stand?
Snakes are facing similar issues as other animals with habitat loss being the primary one. India is a developing country with a larger part in rural areas. Hence development is going to be on the rise. But we have to stop and assess at what cost. Unless it is sustained development, things will only get worse. On the research front, interesting work is happening. More species are described now than ever, young people are taking up this field as career and are genuinely interested to bring about positive changes. Hence I would say there is hope. But we definitely need to work more.
How can young people interested in snakes become a part of your team? Do they have to fulfill any eligibility criteria?
Passion, right attitude, knowledge and urge to learn are the primary criteria for joining us. We also have internship programmes that will help them assess where their interests lay and help them pursue it. Interested students can write to me on kalinga@kalingacre.com for internship or volunteer programme.
What are your views on festivals like Nagpanchami where snakes are offered milk and they are worshipped?
Nagpanchami is an important festival and if it can be rid of capturing live snakes and force-feeding milk in the name of prayers, it can be a great platform for the existing and future generations to carry it forward.
People still capture snakes and torture them by not feeding them for days so that they consume milk when offered on the day of the festival. Such atrocities need to stop. I firmly believe that if there is any last place on earth for the survival of cobras and king cobras, it is India.