Crocodile park
Tuesday, March 6, 2007 at 8:00PM Went to the Crocodile park in Chennai (on East Coast Road). Spent 2 hours there. Saw enough crocodiles for a lifetime! The snakes from the Guindy snake park (which I have visited many times as a kid) have also been moved to this location.
At the entrance, there was this cute tortoise and turtle exhibit.
Here is a map of the worlds croc's. I didnt know that crocodiles were there in all these places!
The adults are almost my age !!
There were three different huge areas with at least 30 or so crocs in each tank.
They practically had a sample of every type of crocodile in this place (alligators and gharials too)!
The sample above covers asia, south america, north america and africa !!
For the grand finale, there was this Dinosaur !!
Note the two little dinosaurs watching the big one!
We also visited the snakes..
Here they are, up close and personal..
There are 4-5 snakes in every one of those pots and the guys keep milking venom every two minutes.
Me: Sir, enakku oru doubtu saar ! (I have a doubt!)
Cool snake venom milking dude (we will abreviate this to dude) : Sollunga Saar (tell me)
Me : how come you dont wear any gloves ?
Dude : we tried gloves. But then the snakes slip through and bite us. Bare hands is better!
Me : do you guys get bit ?
Dude : yes. sometimes.
Me : what then ?
Dude : depending on the snake we have anywhere between 2 hours to 24 to get to a hospital!
Me : you are kidding.
Dude : No Saar. Really. We have a vehicle standing by in case we get bit.
Luckily dude didnt give me a demo of getting bit! But, it was awesome. The whole park is nice. Top notch quality for any animal park! Loved it. Dont miss it if you are visiting Chennai, and do take the kids. I thought Jr. would be scared, but she actually enjoyed it!
Reader Comments (2)
Sundar,
Thoroughly enjoyed all the snaps. It brought back good old memories. I remember having taken the pictures of crocodiles many years before. I used to go frequently in those days with new guests and relatives. I used to go so frequently became familiar with many staff. All the credit goes to Mr.Whitaker who is the founder of the park. He was instrumental in organising a society for the Irula tribe who were good at snake catching. Most of the staff recruited in the park are of native Irula tribe. Very nice people. I still remember a guy by name 'Rajendran' who used to go boldly near crocodiles and pose for pictures.
brought nice memories back Sundar! nice fotos!