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<ul><li><keyword id="277759" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gowri-Shankar">Gowri Shankar</keyword> and his wife Sharmila have set up and run two organisations - Kalinga Centre for Rainforest Ecology (KCRE) and a non-profit organisation called <keyword id="2010968" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kalinga-Foundation">Kalinga Foundation</keyword> in <keyword id="839580" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Agumbe">Agumbe</keyword>, <keyword id="6354780" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Karnataka">Karnataka</keyword>.</li><li>Shankar has rescued close to 400 king cobras and trained around 800 civilians across the country on how to ethically rescue snakes under his brainchild STORM programme.</li><li>While tracking a female cobra, Shankar inadvertently ended up tracking the male who ate the female that had the transmitter in her stomach.</li></ul> The idea of coming face-to-face with a tiny garden snake is enough to make most tremble, but for Gowri Shankar, a wildlife biologist with a passionate love for the <keyword id="396734" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="King-Cobra">king cobra</keyword>, it was an incentive to quit his job at IFB, a washing machine company and make a beeline for the rainforests of Agumbe in Karnataka. Shankar’s career trajectory is quite remarkable, mainly because, at that time, very little was known about wildlife conservation 20-25 years back. He quit his cushy job and joined Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), now called Karuna, as an animal inspector to rescue snakes. He moved on to Madras Crocodile Bank as an education officer under the mentorship of the famous Indian herpetologist and wildlife conservationist <keyword id="350280" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Romulus-Whitaker">Romulus Whitaker</keyword>. The calling from Agumbe came when Whitaker wanted to set up a field station there and needed Shankar to help him set up the field station and work with wild king cobras. He is now pursuing a PhD on king cobras from North Orissa University. Gowri Shankar and his wife Sharmila have now set up and run two organisations - Kalinga Centre for Rainforest Ecology (KCRE) and a non-profit organisation called Kalinga Foundation. Anyone from a software engineer to a photographer or even an organic farmer can join the workshops held at KCRE and learn about and get up close and personal with the wildlife marvels of the rainforest. And the Kalinga Foundation has been set up as a research station primarily for science students where they can learn on-field techniques to make them better scientists. <div type="image" title="A STORM Chennai workshop" msid="81480037" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;A STORM Chennai workshop&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Edited excerpts of Business Insider’s conversation with Shankar follow: What is it that fascinates you about the king cobra? When I was young, I used to drop my sister at her college and go straight to <keyword id="130929" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bannerghatta-Biological-Park">Bannerghatta Biological Park</keyword>, Bengaluru, just to see the snakes. And that’s where I saw the king cobra for the first time in the enclosure. I think they’re beautiful, really massive snakes. I was so surprised to see such an enormous snake because earlier, I had caught cobras, rat snakes, and checkered keelback, and they all looked so tiny in front of a king cobra. I just fell in love with the animal. Tell us about your first experience with rescuing cobras and your interaction with the villagers in Agumbe? When we started working in Agumbe, the villagers were understandably surprised to see a stranger from the city with a ponytail riding a Royal Enfield Bullet in the village. But I started interacting with them. I asked them to let me know when they spotted a king cobra around and to call me if they needed any help. That’s how it started, and to date, I have rescued close to 400 king cobras. Villagers, particularly in and around Agumbe, are very, very patient towards king cobras. King cobras and common cobras, in general, are considered a god and are worshipped. They’ll never kill or try to disturb the snake. That is the most significant advantage we had. What have you learned from the villagers about snakes? People in the Malenadu region of Karnataka, where Agumbe is situated, have a lot of knowledge, particularly on king cobras. So, when I started working there and started interacting with the people, they told me many interesting facts like king cobras feed on other snakes and are even cannibalistic and feed on other king cobras, which was quite surprising. We already knew that this happened in captivity, but it was the villagers who gave us first-hand information that cannibalism exists among king cobras in the wild too. Also, the king cobra is the only species that builds a nest out of over 3000 species of snakes across the world. The villagers told us how they build the nest. In 2005 or so, it was thanks to a villager that we spotted our first king cobra nest. <div type="Youtube" id="WbfLC0C23gM" title="STORM (Scientific Training on Reptile Management) Chennai Edition" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WbfLC0C23gM/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Why don’t you tell us a little more about STORM? In the past decade or so, people have been following snake rescuers on television or YouTube. And without any training or practice, they started attempting to capture snakes, inevitably getting bitten and sometimes also dying. So that’s when I conceived Scientific Training on Reptile Management (STORM) - a comprehensive training program to teach people the right way to capture and rescue snakes. Now close to 800 people across the country are trained under STORM, apart from the Forest Department, Coast Guard, Fire Department, and Police Department. How many times has a snake bitten you? I've been bitten by numerous non-venomous snakes that don’t count; otherwise, I've been bitten by three venomous snakes - a pit viper, a cobra, but my worst bite was from a king cobra. I’m one of the few guys in the world who has been bitten by a king cobra and survived. Did you have the anti-venom? No, that’s the thing. We don’t have anti-venom for the king cobra, so the chances of dying from a bite are relatively high. But I think I survived because king cobras are one of the best snakes, and they don’t intend to bite you. They give you enough warnings. They tell you, ‘look, I don’t want to bite you. I can kill you in 20 minutes, but that’s not my plan’, but they don’t know what I’m doing, right? I’m trying to rescue it, but it doesn’t understand that. So this was an accident. Luckily I didn’t give him a chance to inject or pump enough venom into my hand, and I reacted fast. There was swelling in 20 minutes. I was hospitalised for three days. I almost died, but luckily I survived thanks to that king cobra who didn’t mean to bite me and didn’t inject its entire venom — that’s like 5ml or 6ml of venom — into me. He was kind enough just to give me a little dose. <div type="image" title="Rescue operation underway" msid="81480056" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Rescue operation underway&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Tell us a little bit about this radio telemetry study that you have conducted on king cobras. Radio telemetry was initiated in 2008 by Mr.Whitaker and the team. This was the first time ever radio telemetry (a tool to track the movement and behaviour of animals) was done on a king cobra right here in the Western Ghats in Karnataka. So we were all very excited, but we didn’t know what to expect. Unfortunately, within 30 days, our female king cobra was eaten by a male king cobra, which is quite rare, and the locals helped me gather that information — we knew king cobras fed on other snakes, but this was a male feeding on the female after mating with her. Fascinatingly enough, though we were tracking the female, we ended up tracking the male instead, who had the female in his stomach because the transmitter was in her stomach. Another interesting thing about this male king cobra was that it was a translocated one that had moved 15 or 20 kilometres to see what happens if they are moved from their home. So this guy wanted to go back to his home. He travelled a lot, and we think we figured out for the first time that a king cobra can travel up to eight kilometres in one day. Are they territorial? We are yet to figure that out, but we think they’re not territorial unless it’s a breeding season. If there’s a female, the male will guard her because he wants to mate with her. When you were facing off with the king cobra, have you quietly wished you were sitting safely in that washing machine company? Not for a single second. You won’t believe it, I was in the hospital for three days after having survived that bite, and my hand was still swollen, and I said I want to go home. And while I was heading back to my field station, I received a rescue call. With my swollen hand, I went straight to rescue king cobra before. Till today, I will sit in front of a king cobra the whole day without getting bored. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/tata-tryst-with-e-grocery-starts-with-a-billion-dollar-acquisition-of-bigbasket-heres-why-it-could-be-a-sweet-deal-for-both/articleshow/81478849.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">Tata’s tryst with e-grocery starts with a billion dollar acquisition of BigBasket – here’s why it could be a sweet deal for both</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/kalyan-jewellers-will-be-going-up-against-titan-but-remains-sceptical-jewellery-business-can-ever-fully-go-online/articleshow/81478749.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">Kalyan Jewellers will be going up against Titan but remains sceptical jewellery business can ever fully go online</a>

This king cobra researcher is happy to endure a lethal bite or two for the sake of his passion

Amid the coronavirus lockdown, bull giraffe <keyword id="9121942" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Yadunandan">Yadunandan</keyword> from <keyword id="6358119" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="mysuru">Mysuru</keyword> <keyword id="9066" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Zoo">zoo</keyword> joined his consort <keyword id="8524" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gowri">Gowri</keyword> at the <keyword id="6354321" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bengaluru">Bengaluru</keyword> zoo recently as their mating season kicked off, an official said on Wednesday. "As the 4-year-old Gowri has been alone and looking for companion, we have ferried Yaudunandan from Sri Chamarajendra zoological garden in Mysuru to our zoo on April 24 so that they could get to know each other and mate," a Bengaluru Bannerghatta Biological Park official told IANS here. Mysuru is 150km southwest of Bengaluru in the southern state. Gowri, who was also in Mysuru zoo earlier, moved to Bengaluru in April 2018, as there was no other tallest mammal (giraffe) in the city's zoo, located on the southern outskirts. "As Mysuru zoo has 7 giraffes, it has spared Yadunandan to pair with Gowri in our zoo under the animal exchange programme for pairing and conservation education," BBBP zoo executive director <keyword id="9139573" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="vanishree-vipin-singh">Vanishree Vipin Singh</keyword> said in a statement here. Yadunandan was born to Krishnaraja and Babbly in Mysuru zoo 15 months ago and has grown tall enough to mate with Gowri. "When we released Yadunandan in the giraffe enclosure, Gowri walked up to him. Both are also responding to each other and seem to be compatible," said Singh. A popular tourist destination in the tech city, the zoo has been shut for all visitors since the lockdown was enforced on March 25 and extended on April 15 to May 3. "Animal caretakers, staff and veterinary doctors are working to maintain the zoo, its flora and fauna," the official added. Set up in 1970 near the Bannerghatta forest in 1970, the 5-decade-old sprawling zoo was declared a national park in 1974 and a part of it was converted into a biological reserve in 2002 for its rich bio-diversity. Besides a variety of animals and birds, the zoo has a safari park, a a butterfly enclosure, an aquarium, a snake house, a pet corner and an animal rescue centre. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="75446890" title="Nine Miss Worlds including Manushi Chillar salute medical personnel" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>

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This king cobra researcher is happy to endure a lethal bite or two for the sake of his passion

Kavita Majumdar

It's Cupid times for giraffes in Bengaluru zoo

IANS

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