What is on the menu today? Meat, vegetables and live fish. To be precise, about 300 kilograms of buffalo meat a month, 1,600 kilograms of chicken, 200 kilograms of vegetables and about 90 kilograms of fish every month. And, of course, 1,000 rats per month for the snakes.
This information comes straight from the horse’s mouth: from Allwin Jesudasan, joint director of Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology, to be precise. Needless to say, food in such quantities for a number of species — endangered and otherwise — requires a constant flow of funds. So do other aspects of running India’s iconic crocodile park: “Our monthly budget is ₹22 lakh. Our major expenditure is food for reptiles and salaries,” says Allwin, adding, “50% of our income comes from ticket revenues. From mid-March to end of June, we were expecting ₹80 lakh. That is the amount we lost from ticket income.”
The loss was expected, considering the nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the bank did not have time to brace itself, and it hit hard. However that does not mean things were at a standstill. “Most of our staff live either at the park or in the adjoining village, so they were able to come and help out,” says Allwin.
Online operations
The park also started online workshops and Facebook lives, to keep the awareness process going (and give audiences a few moments with the in-house Komodo dragon, Smaug).
The Madras Crocodile Bank during the COVID-19 lockdown
What they miss most are the visitors, especially children with their wide-eyed enthusiasm. This is a sentiment echoed by Akila Balu, a coordinator with the Students’ Sea Turtle Conservation Network (SSTCN), that assists the Forest Department during Olive Ridley nesting and hatching season. School and college groups are among its most frequent visitors during Olive Ridley nesting and hatching season: this time, naturally, no one could visit.
The first lockdown took place when nesting season was well underway, and the last of the hatchlings had made their way to the sea by the time lockdowns were eased in early June.
“We were given Forest Department ID cards, so patrolling and conservation work was not affected by the lockdown. But the schools that would schedule visits with us could not do so: the awareness aspect of our work has been put on hold,” says Akila.
As for the main work, it has been continued under Chennai Wildlife Warden CH Padma. “We patrol between Neelankarai and the Adyar Estuary, and one more team does the whole of Marina. So it is a little less than 14 kilometres that the Forest Department covers with SSTCN’s assistance.”
Patrolling takes place in turns, she says, in two batches per night on each stretch. Duties comprise looking for turtle tracks, locating turtle nests and relocating them into secure hatcheries. “This begins in early January. In about six weeks or so, the hatchlings start emerging; the first ones come out in mid- to end-February. Hatchlings will keep emerging till early May: monitoring them round the clock is our biggest responsibility,” she says. Fishermen from various city kuppams also guide them.
“The weekend walks are usually the public ones, and usually between Neelankarai and Adyar Estuary. The little ones and the elderly who cannot walk the whole stretch wait for us at the hatcheries. Talking to them, and raising awareness about marine life is one of the biggest parts of what we do,” she says, wistfully.
Horses at The Sanctuary, ECR, Chennai
In contrast, The Sanctuary on ECR has barely any public involvement. The safe haven for injured and old horses is almost entirely a family affair, with the sole exception being their recent fundraising call to help tide through the lockdown.
Says Pooja Chordia, who helms operations at the moment, “The horses are mainly fed a combination of oats and bran. The feed is changed depending on their age and medical conditions, each horse has different requirements usually. We require about 20 bags of oats and about 15 bags of bran per month, because we have eight horses at the moment.”
These include Surya the 13-year-old former jumper, Proflair who drags one of his back legs, and Harry, who is undergoing treatment for a tumour. “Some of them are retired racehorses; others were rescued from abuse and handed to us for care,” she says.
The total expenditure, including the bags of arugampul grass that have to be specially sourced for the sensitive horses, comes to about ₹95,750 per month.
What is also difficult is sourcing steady funds from family and well wishers for this private setup, with everyone’s incomes having taken a hit. The Madras Crocodile Bank faces a similar — yet entirely different — dilemma. “We also get funds from international zoos, including US-based ones like Montgomery Zoo in Alabama, Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in South Carolina and St Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in Florida,” says Allwin, “But they have been closed to public due to the pandemic, and are short on funds themselves.”
“Even when we do open to the public, we won’t be having foreign tourists or even visitors from North India this year at least,” says Allwin, “Individuals who adopt some of our animals make up about 5% of our funds. We have to depend on them more now.” Adoptions do seem to be on the rise. Two Travancore tortoises, a green anaconda and an Indian rock python were adopted in the past week alone. After all, it provides all the thrills of having a python, without needing a steady supply of rats.
