Thread by @BiIndia

This #KingCobra rescuer is happy to endure a lethal bite or two for the sake of his passion

businessinsider.in/thelife/this-k…

By @Kavitamajumdar

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 King Cobra, it was an incentive to quit his job and make a beeline for the rainforests of Agumbe in Karnataka.

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.

👉What is it that fascinates you about the King Cobra?

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.

When we started in Agumbe, the villagers were understandably surprised to see a stranger from the city with a ponytail riding a Bullet (a motorcycle brand) in the village.

But I started interacting with them and telling them what I did and said to them that when there is a King Cobra around, call me, and I’ll be happy to help. That’s how it started, and to date, I have rescued close to 400 king cobras.

➡️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 in the field station and started interacting with the people, they told us 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 knew that in captivity when you put two King Cobras in one box, they will definitely try to eat each other -- the bigger one will eat the smaller ones. But while we suspected that happens in the wild, too, the villagers gave us first-hand information that cannibalism...

... exists among king cobras.

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, and in 2005 or so, the first nest I saw was thanks to a villager.

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.

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 keep warning you and keep giving you mock charges. 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.

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.