WHAT KEPT ME AWAY !

AGUMBE –A Herpetologist’s Paradise

It all started with my friend's wedding in Udipi. We had to drive all the way from Chennai for this, so we thought we will club an exploration trip along with the wedding. Madhu identified this place near Udipi and vouched for it. These are the things she came up with when asked 'why Agumbe?'.
1. The wettest spot in south india, the Cherrapunji of south india,2.The place where Malgudi Days was shot 3,King cobra capital of the world! and that’s where our jaws dropped! Did you say King Cobra? we asked in awe,” Yes" she said " and a lot of them " she added....

So we left to Agumbe... That’s where we bumped into Mr.Gowri Shankar, herpetologist Agumbe Rainforest Research Station. Founded by Mr. Romulus Whitaker, to study King cobras,Rescuse and release and to make The king Cobra the Flagship species of the western ghats.Gowri Shankar is a great (cool) personality. Everybody in Agumbe knows him( i swear everybody from village heads to the scavengers, from cops to theives he knows them all!) An extremely social fella, knows all South Indian languages. Rom's choice of Gorwi to run ARRS is commendable. Madhu's choice to get to Agumbe got a standing ovation!

The exploration at this herpetologist's paradise started off with my first Hump-nosed pit viper(Hypnale hypnale) in the wild, it was a great experience to handle a wild one for the first time, we did see some ltm's , langs’s, Grey Hornbill and some interesting amphibians(including caecilians). A stream cut through the forest adjoining ARRS, we trekked down following the stream along with Gorwi and Sharmila in search of Malabar pit vipers. Luck favored us with only a pit into which fell, one of the MIT students who came along with us.
We returned to Chennai due to time constraint.

The second time we got there in a hurry,

YES! somewhere in the bushes ,there was a 14 feet King waiting for us. Contd…