Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Agumbe Rainforest Research Station

The king's dashboard


Closeup of the coiled serpent

Gowri talking to the locals after the capture. Notice the bag with the king in it



Tucked away in the heart of the Karnataka western Ghats is a quaint old town called Agumbe. Known to be the second wettest region in India, It is a perenially wet place.

Agumbe is basically a contiguous reserve forest linking the Someshwara wildlife sanctuary and the Kudremukha wildlife sanctuary.
These are patches of the last remaining lowland rainforests in india.

Agumbe is a hotspot for the longest venomous snake in the world, The King Cobra aka Hamadryad. It's latin name being Ophiophagus Hannah ( Literally translating : Snake eating Snake )

The Agumbe Rainforest Research Station is setup by one of the world's leading authority on Crocodiles and Indian reptiles,Romulus Whitaker to conserve this uncommon and endangered giant. Rom caught his first king way back in 1971 in Agumbe and since then has been closely associated with this green heaven.

The station is managed by a cool dude named Gowrishankar, who is the education officer. Gowri is spreading awareness about the importance of conserving this prime predator throughout schools and colleges in the surrounding regions. While not spreading awareness,He is busy rescuing Kings which inadvertently come into houses,plantations and commercial vehicles ;)

Gowri has rescued 36 Kings as of now and each of them have found a safer environment in the deep jungles where they are released.

Gowri has observed the king from close quarters ( In some cases, verrrry close ) and has discovered many interesting aspects about it and has demystified many hyped up facts about this feared snake.

I have been visting this sacred environ for the past two months and finalllllly on my second visit, I fulfilled my lifelong ambition of sighting a wild King Cobra.....

I was with Gowri when we got the news that a King has been found in a Mitsubishi Canter !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .... We rushed down to a town called Someshwara and reached the road where the Canter was parked.We talked to the driver and the cleaner of the vehicle about what happened.

It seems that the driver sighted a huuge King crossing the road and got jittery ( am being kind to the driver ) and stamped on the brake .... The Canter skid and came to a stop in a sort of ditch, The driver and the Cleaner got down to inspect the damage .... Meanwhile, the king crossing the road got confused and decided to hide itself in the bonnet of the Canter ... The cleaner noticed this and called up people who in turn called Gowri ...

Gowri, the dude he is, pulled the snake out of the Canter and bagged it in less than 2 minutes .... By the way, the king was 11 Feet !!!!

Here are some photos of the episode ...

13 comments:

e2d said...

Awwweeezzzome Post!! Very Interesting read.
Nice of you to be so kind to the driver and “the king crossing the road got confused and decided to hide ………..”lol!! Along with Gowri, U demystifying some of the hyped up facts about the king as well hu?:)
BTW *respects * to Gowri the dude! 11 feet king in two mins in a bag!! Holy C! *more respects*.

ព្រះរាម Phreah Ream said...

Ewww! Everytime that I drive by a snake (and it happens at least once a month) I freak out...thinking it could some how jump in my car...people think i am nuts but now i know it is true!!!

I like snakes, but not in my house or car or tangled up on my mountain bike.

I am glad that the snake was rescued and that all was okay.

By the way, do you have any more photots of the snake...like it's head or being put into the bag?

tl

Hamadryad said...

@ Tania - Yes, I do have lots of pictures of the final release of the King. I will post those pics on a blog I plan to write about the king.

Thanks for stopping by. Maybe I'll send you some pics of the king :)

ព្រះរាម Phreah Ream said...

that would be cool...i wish my students could see this....they love king snakes!
unfortunately, school is out for summer.

ព្រះរាម Phreah Ream said...

that should be "king cobras"
my bad.

micki said...

What a fantastic experience!! Nice shots.

Unknown said...

too goood.... want to capture one of them...:)

Hamadryad said...

@Tanuj,

Thanks and I hope you're joking when you say that you want to capture one .... They are in enough trouble already without people running around "capturing" them.

The Poet said...

it feels nice that now people are really saving these beautiful reptiles,i m fully mesmerized after see these picture

pablo said...

Hi
I will travel to India this august, and I will go to Agumbe research station, but I am not sure How to arrive properly, I think best way is fly to Mangalore.
Please, I would apreciate very much if you contact me and help me and tell me how to arrive there, and how to contact with Mr Gowri.
At the same time accomodation options.
My email is pabloaleale@hotmail.com
Thank you very much in advance, Please, let me know something
Regards

Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS) said...

Nice blog bro.

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Agumbe Rainforest Research Station(ARRS)
http://arrs.agumbe.com/

Rahul said...

Wooow.. superb read... eager for a close encounter with the king...

Unknown said...

Really great work...thanks for nice activities