“Snakes are magical”

INTERVIEW: ROMULUS WHITAKER AND JANAKI LENIN

By Shevlin Sebastian

What made you decide to pen down your memoirs?

I have been telling my stories of my encounters with snakes for years and years. People would always say, “Write it down. Write it down.” So I finally did. You are a natural storyteller.

Was it easy to write the book?

You should ask that question to [wife] Janaki (laughs). She had the horrible experience of putting it all together. I had notes and scribbles all over the place. I went on and on writing. It was Janaki who chucked out all the nonsense and made the book a coherent narrative. It was hard work for both of us.

You recalled your memories with so much accuracy. Did the Internet help?

I had friends and relatives who remembered a lot of things, of which I had only vague memories. I depended a lot on my siblings, Gail, Nina and Neelakantan.

Janaki: His mother Doris had saved almost everything Rom had written. There were letters and Rom’s schoolwork. For instance, he would write a class assignment on some snake or the other. There is a pile of those. There are the letters that he wrote to his cousins in the States. We asked the cousins about their memories of who did what and where. So, between all these people and the paper trail, we could piece together what had happened.

People have been terrified of snakes from time immemorial. What are the reasons for that?

Some species of snakes, like the rattlesnake, cobra or viper, are dangerous. Primatologists have said that the eyesight and brain power of primates have developed so that they can avoid having unpleasant experiences with creatures like snakes. In Christianity, snakes have been called evil. Whereas, in Hindu mythology, people worship and revere them. It is a strange dichotomy around the world.

The main reason is that snakes seem like creatures from outer space. They don’t hear, and they don’t walk on legs the way all the other animals do. They seem to be magical. It engenders fear in people and fascination, too.

You have dealt with so many types of snakes in your career. Does the snake have a basic character?

Snakes are very nervous animals. They look at human beings as being enormous giants moving around. That’s because snakes are always lying on the ground, and looking up. We have to admit Man is the most dangerous animal in the world. Snakes know that if human beings step on them, they will make all attempts to kill them. So they are continually trying to get away from us. They live in great fear of us.

What explains your fascination?

They are interesting animals. And we know so little about them even though we have been studying them for hundreds of years. But it is only recently we came to know about how mother snakes look after their babies. King cobras make a nest. They carefully maintain the temperature and humidity for their eggs to incubate. We are learning new facts about them all the time.

You mentioned that those who deal with snakes have fingers which are deformed by bites. How does this happen?

When we handle snakes, we should be very careful. When a snake bites you, it often happens on the fingers. This creates muscle, tendon and tissue damage. The fingers tighten up. And they become deformed. Sometimes, they may have to be amputated. I had a friend who had several deformed fingers. So, when you shook his hand, it was not a pleasant feeling. My mentor, Bill Haast from Miami, Florida, had so many deformed fingers we would joke by saying, “Your hands are like lobster claws.”

Is it because they don't receive treatment?

The problem is that the destruction of tissue can happen rapidly. The snake is injecting venom deep inside the flesh. Even if you get treatment, take medicines and put on bandages, the damage happens. This is called necrosis (the death of body tissue. It cannot be reversed). It’s a type of gangrene.

You have described that a fellow snake handler had received a dry bite. What does that mean?

Dry bites happen often. The snake has the choice of whether or not to inject the venom. When it bites, it does not automatically release venom. For example, if it wants to kill a rat to eat it, the snake will inject venom.

One reason for dry bites is that the snake does not have a desire to waste venom. Venom is a difficult product to make. The snake uses up protein and energy from his body. He may not be thinking logically about this. But through evolution, the snake realises he has to conserve his venom and use it only when he is in extreme danger.

How many times have you experienced bites?

Not much. Seven or eight bites. Not bad, I should think, for an 80-year-old. I tell my younger peers that getting bitten is nothing to brag about. Because that means you have done something idiotic.

How did you avoid getting bitten?

When you first get bitten, and if it is a bite that causes a lot of pain, that’s the best lesson you could get. You will never want to get bitten, ever. It’s a matter of common sense and self-preservation.

One of the most astonishing moments in the book was when you described how you opened a crate in Miami that contained an anaconda from Bolivia. Apart from biting you, it jumped up and enveloped your body. How did it not crush you to death?

The snake was 12 feet long. My friends were standing there and laughing at me and they did not help me. One reason was because the anaconda had not encircled my neck. This anaconda, a female, was very frightened. It wanted to hold on to something tight. I was the tree it wanted to hold on to. The anaconda was not trying to kill me. If it wanted to, it would have encircled my neck and then I would have been in serious trouble.

An anaconda or a python can tighten up your chest muscles so that you cannot breathe. But if it squeezes your neck, you will become unconscious. And then you can die.

Pet pythons have killed their owners, because they placed them around their necks. The snake may have got frightened or began tightening their body around the person’s neck. These people did not realise how dangerous it was to put a python around your neck.

You have dealt with snakes for decades. How has it changed you as a person?

Snakes are quiet. They just look at things going on and don’t get excited. They don’t make a lot of noise. I may have these attributes.

How many snake catchers do you know who have died?

In the early days, very few. But in recent times, especially in India, there have been many. That’s because they foolishly caught a snake in a way they should not have. The most important thing is to keep the ego under check and not show off.

Nowadays, everybody wants to be a hero and put up reels on Facebook and social media. And they pay for it with their lives.

Who do you trust more, snakes or human beings?

I trust a few human beings implicitly, but mostly, I trust snakes.

(Published in The Sunday Magazine, The New Indian Express, South India and New Delhi)