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 ...