Madras Crocodile Bank turns 50: How does this reptilian zoo run?

Zai Whitaker distinctly remembers Madras Crocodile Bank Trust’s (MCBT) first-ever gharial.

As incredulous as it sounds, it arrived in a box.

The small zoo dedicated to reptiles on what was once a desolate East Coast Road in Tamil Nadu had been up and running since 1976 when among the rarest crocodilians on Earth, made its way to Chennai from somewhere in Central/ North India. A pen was dug up in the late 1980s with some water to accommodate this river guardian that was most critically endangered because human activities had destroyed its freshwater river habitat. Down South was certainly one way to go.

“The gharial came in a box… I think the carrier was from Kukrail, Uttar Pradesh, but I’m not sure. We [co-founder Rom and a few animal handlers] were all standing around it. Of course, when the animal is released from the box, you don’t know what it’s going to do, where it’s going to go. We were waiting and watching. Fortunately, it was very well behaved. It ran straight into the water, and since then there has been no looking back,” she says.

Fifty years since it first began, over 47 gharials (out of 395 crocs) have made the MCBT their home. This is besides the 32 other reptile species including the three Indian crocodilians, turtles, snakes, and lizards, across the eight and a half acre campus. Hundreds of animal handlers, educators, volunteers, staff members, and researchers make Croc Bank the institution it continues to be. Rom and Zai, who made this small piece of land in Vadanamelli village their home, have gone on to commission and pioneer a number of marquee programmes including the Snake Bite Mitigation Project, benefitting and aiding reptilian research essential reading in India. At the Croc Bank today, where Zai sits near a hatchery to write and oversee operations, a certain quiet enthusiasm takes over the space. As we walk through the quieter parts of the campus, amidst trees that the duo planted, half a century ago, Zai says that the years both seem to shrink and expand. Time is, after all, relative.

Pothole portal

The story unfortunately began during a point of infliction: a crisis. By the 1960s, hunting crocodiles for their skin had pushed their population into decline. Indian crocs like the mugger crocodile, saltwater crocodile, and gharials, faced massive existential threats. The Indian Government decided that it was time to protect the three species under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.

Zai says that by then, herpetologist Romulus ‘Rom’ Whitaker was already a well-known conservationist in India. He had been conducting several crocodile surveys besides setting up and running the Snake Park at Guindy. The idea for the croc bank came to him while he was sitting atop a truck, hitching a ride back home from a crocodile survey in 1972 all the way from Odisha.

“I think he was coming back from a survey because he’d run out of money. It was just everyday stuff for us. This wonderful truck driver gave him a free ride all the way from Orissa to the gate of the Snake Park in Chennai, which is where he was headed. So he wrote me this letter, which I should still have somewhere, saying why don’t we start a croc-breeding facility, and then rewild them with the help of the Forest Department. ‘People could come to visit and look at the animals, so maybe we could charge a ticket, and the future Mrs Whitaker’ — because by then we were talking about getting married — would have some daily income for food and other necessities. That was actually how it started,” Zai says.

The Madras Crocodile Bank was formally established on August 26, 1976 by Rom, Zai, and a group of like-minded conservationists, funded initially by wedding gifts; steady family support (including contributions by Zai’s father conservationist Zafar Rashid Futehally, who started the World Wildlife Fund-India, and Zai’s uncle decorated ornithologist Salim Ali); and the sale of a few possessions including a trusty old tape recorder (priceless back in the day). They bought their first plot of coastal land near Chennai for about ₹5,000 an acre even though the initial price was ₹4,500. “He increased it seeing how enthusiastic we got about the land,” Zai says.

Over the years, besides breeding crocs, turtles, tortoises at the bank, commissioning research about crocodile-human conflict, and devising educational programmes, they have set up the Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Team (ANET) in 1990, and the Irula Snake Catchers’ Industrial Cooperative Society which has helped the Irulas (left without jobs after the Wildlife Act banned snakeskin trade) earn a livelihood extracting snake venom for anti-venom production.

Zai says that they have been intent on building a passionate team. One that is enthusiastic about saying yes to the most unlikely of circumstances. Zai particularly remembers the likes of researchers who recently passed, including Jagannathan Vijaya, Satish Bhaskar, and D Basu. “We would tell them ‘There are dacoits there, and you’ll spend the night sleeping on the sand banks with pythons’. It was always the response of these three people, ‘oh yeah, that’s great, I would love to do that.’ We might have thought that we were doing them a favour. But these were three people who created the space in India to conserve sea turtles, freshwater turtles, and the gharial. Their initial studies were what took that whole conservation movement forward. I hope that continues,” she says.

When we meet 38-year-old second generation animal handler G Gowrishankar, we realise what Zai means. The crocs recognise his voice and amble towards him. Someone in the crowd who watches him call to the muggers in the pit next to us, remarks, “Who is this guy? He’s herding them like they are goats”.

Gowrishankar says that some of these beasts have become his favourites. Over time, he has learnt to enter the pits, feed specific crocs, assess their health, and even catch and quarantine them in case of ailments. This is strenuous work that requires brute strength, tactic, and a genuine understanding of the animal.

What it takes

Vaibhavi Bhardwaj, who grew up loving animals and wanting snakes for pets, is now a zoo educator at MCBT. She is a big proponent of the volunteer programme and says that it is a great jump-off point for those who wish to seriously enter the conservation space. She says that besides the public interactions she does during feed timings, where she tells people about the reptiles, and debunks myths about specific species, she conducts reptile awareness programmes for schools, and snake bite mitigation campaigns. She also helps educate volunteers and tells them how a zoo runs.

“One of the things volunteers participate in is husbandry activities: maintenance and constant checking on the reptiles. Reptiles are animals that are really hard to catch illness in, because they’re very good at masking anything that’s wrong — it’s a survival instinct for them. So our keepers are trained to observe small abnormalities in behaviour, which they do every morning,” she says, speaking about how a zoo runs.

“Apart from that, our vet constantly checks what supplements need to be added to their feed, which the volunteers help with, along with the bedding. There’s constant screening of things like faeces to check for illness, especially worms. Then the education department is mostly involved in breaking the barrier between an animal behind a pen and the people who come to observe them — building a connection by making people realise these animals are important, that they’re an integral keystone species maintaining the ecosystem, and bringing about the value they play in the wild,” she adds.

Today, as part of the50th year celebrations, Ganesh Muthiah, trustee, MCBT, says that he will embark on a 15,000 kilometre journey across 20 Indian states over 120 days. The idea is to educate people about a Save the Reptiles Campaign that they are launching. This is besides a number of activities including photography contests and educating people about reptiles in their midst. “We are excited about the undertaking,” says this long-term-volunteer-turned-trustee, who is ever enthusiastic to speak about the days of yore. “Rom is like our Indiana Jones,” he says, speaking about the founder, who is scheduled to participate in the celebrations despite his advanced age.

Besides elaborating on everything that the Croc Bank does, everyone seems to have only one piece of information for anyone who walks in. “They may seem like they are still, and aren’t doing much. They may not seem cute and cuddly. But do not forget — they are definitely wild creatures. No going too close to the pen,” Vaibhavi says.

Madras Crocodile Bank Trust is at 4, East Coast Road, Vadanamelli Village, Mahabalipuram. The bank is closed on Mondays. Entry is priced at ₹110 for adults and ₹50 for children.