Journey into the world of snakes
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They are feared, despised or venerated, but the mystique of snakes endures. Romulus Whitaker screened, recently in Chennai, two films that he made for NGC. G. Ananthakrishnan
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SNAKE SAVER: Naturalist Romulus Whitaker.
Biophiles are those who love nature and are always ready to support the cause of conservation. The distinguished Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson called this state of mind biophilia, and in it he saw new hope for the long-term survival of humanity.
All biophiles naturally find a film by Romulus Whitaker a powerful magnet.
When there are two films, their delight is doubled and on a wide screen, they even have a mesmerising effect. Nature lovers, therefore, thought nothing of rising relatively early on a Sunday morning and making it to Sathyam Cinema for a special screening of two films in the Snake Hunter series, on Costa Rica and North America, both made for National Geographic Channel.
They wanted to utilise the opportunity to commune with the American-born naturalist and filmmaker on snakes, biodiversity and India's natural riches. The screening was organised by naturalist-photographer Saravanakumar's Ecotone and Sathyam.
Intense relationship
Rom Whitaker's relationship with snakes is so intense that he felt compelled to tell everyone not to handle snakes in the manner that he does in the films, without sufficient instruction or expertise. His larger message deals with the question of saving snakes.
He explores the predicament of the reptiles, which cross the path of resource-hungry humans too often and suffer as a consequence, be it in the United States or Costa Rica.
The Snake Hunter series delves into this poorly understood world of cold creatures that generally keep their distance with humans. Using remarkable footage, Whitaker explains the phenomenon of look-alike snakes that have warning colours and behaviour similar to their venomous counterparts for protection from predators: the non-venomous water snake mimics the venomous cottonmouth water moccasin in the U.S. A much-maligned subject of Whitaker's visual essay is the rattlesnake, reviled by many as a venomous villain and adopted by some as a devilish cult symbol. The unhappy relationship between this snake and people is all too clear from the hostility exhibited by many ranchers and others who speak on camera.
Whitaker's film on Costa Rica provides chilling confirmation of everything conservationists dread, occurring in a rich tapestry of Central American rainforest - extinction of species, habitat loss and relentless pressure exerted by humans for short-term economic benefits.
As the filming expedition moves into the mystically beautiful Monteverde Cloud Forest, where 20 species of amphibians, including the golden toad, have gone extinct in recent memory, it dawns on the team that the loss of these creatures has had a major impact on the population of snakes. Some of Costa Rica's wilderness has been reclaimed from private ownership through international fund raising, to keep the rain forest from being completely wiped out.
Most fearsome
It is in this setting that one comes across the most fearsome snake in Whitaker's tale, the fer-de-lance. This is a species that delivers nearly 6,000 bites in a year on average, but Costa Rica has a reasonably good anti-venom programme to reduce mortality. The haemorrhagic and muscle-destroying capacity of the fer-de-lance venom is graphically illustrated in the documentary. The snake has little chance of survival in some parts of Costa Rica that attract gold nugget-hunters.
At the end of the 104-minute journey through a poorly understood but much despised world, Whitaker left the audience with some practical advice: for snakebite, current medical wisdom dictates that there should be no panic, no tourniquet, no cut-and-suck to remove venom and immediate referral for doctor's help. There is broad-spectrum anti-venom made in the country for bites from cobra, krait, Russel's viper and saw-scaled viper; anti-venom is not available for the banded krait. Worship snakes. That way, they will stay alive.
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