Celebrating snakes

Snakes of India: The Field Guide by Romulus Whitaker & Ashok Captain; Draco Books, Chennai, 2004; pages 500, colour plates 262, maps, Rs.2,700 (hard cover).

THE incredible diversity of habitats in India, from the alpine landscape of the Himalayas to the punishing hot deserts of western India, has engendered a bewildering variety of life forms, including many varieties of snakes. They have adapted well to these varied haunts.

Although snakes are universally fascinating and, in India, are of particular religious and medical importance, we did not have a field guide. After Malcolm Smith wrote his Serpentes as the third volume to the Fauna of British India in 1943, no major work on the subject has come out, except two; Whitaker brought out a short field guide covering 30 species in 1978 and the National Book Trust published a book on snakes by P.J. Deoras. Now we have this sparkling new field guide. One herpetologist exulted on seeing the book: "Romulus Whitaker and Ashok Captain have now provided what the world of herpetology has been craving for. The importance of this book for the development of Indian herpetology cannot be overstated."

Be it the thousand-hooded Adhisesha or the wily serpent at Eden that lured Eve into taking that fateful bite at the apple, snakes have held the imagination of human beings. India tops the world in the number of snakebites (up to 10,00,000 a year) and snakebite deaths (up to 15,000 a year), yet people can rarely differentiate the relatively few venomous snakes from the more numerous non-venomous species. Whitaker believes that we need to address this terrible waste of human life. He has also been fighting against the indiscriminate fear of all snakes, called ophidiophobia, which results in their needless slaughter. The situation is the same in the other countries of the subcontinent. People will never feel comfortable about snakes unless they are, at the very least, able to identify which to avoid and what to do in case of an encounter or a bite. Thus a snake field guide such as this one is not just an aid to identification but could become a life-saving reference.

Probably descended from the limbless lizards that lived in the time of the dinosaurs, snakes have occupied every possible ecological niche, from rainforests to deserts and to the seas. India has 270 species, one tenth of the number of species in the world, ranging in size from the 12-centimetre-long Brahminy worm snake to the 10-metre-long Reticulated Python of the Nicobar Islands. They are also as colourful as the fish in a coral lagoon. Some are endemic to India, such as the Cherrapunji Keelback. This is a precious heritage about which we know very little.

Romulus Whitaker, an internationally renowned herpetologist, has spent a lifetime observing, studying and working for the conservation of snakes in India. He has mastered this field as far as anyone can tell, by teaching himself. He has received numerous awards, including the Order of the Golden Ark (the Netherlands) and the Peter Scot Award (United Kingdom). The institutions he conceived and built up, the Snake Park and the Crocodile Bank in Chennai and the Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Team (ANET) in Port Blair, have all blossomed into hives of research and conservation activities. He has been dreaming about this field guide for quite some time. The book was in the making for 10 years, and its release has been hailed as a major publishing event.

Ashok Captain, after retiring from cycle racing, has been devoting his time to documenting snakes on film. He makes no compromise on authenticity and so takes all his pictures in situ. For some species, he had to trek for days in the forests of Arunachal Pradesh. At the book launch in Chennai, he explained how at times he picked up the snake, cleaned it with water, then placed it in the same spot where he found it and shot his picture. His subjects were cooperative - most snakes do not move much - he said. For all the shots he used a flash, sometimes two, so that the details are captured.

Designed to be reader-friendly, the book covers all Indian species known to science. Each colour-coded page indicates if that species is non-venomous, mildly venomous or venomous. One page is allotted to each species, with the photograph on the facing page. The description, scalation (pattern of scales on a snake) and natural history given are minimal and sharp. Scalation is a distinct feature of each species, much like the plumage of a bird. So the scalation of each species of snake is described. There is a small-range map, indicating the distribution. Look-alikes of the snake described are also mentioned. There are indices for both the common and scientific names.

The authors believed that a good, clear colour photograph is the best aid to identifying a snake. In quality, the photographs match the printed content of the book.

There is much more to this book than the stunning photographs. The authors themselves have published it, under the banner `Draco Books', without any middlemen or corporates. They have announced that 50 per cent of the profits will be ploughed back to conservation efforts and also to fund the vernacular versions of the book. Work has already begun on the Hindi version.

The book has been designed as a field guide but there are enough details to be of help to a specialist. The authors say: "It is aimed at travellers, naturalists, herpetologists, doctors and anybody who has an interest in the fantastic biodiversity of India where snakes are feared, revered and play a vital role in our lives." This field guide will generate enthusiasm in the study and conservation of snakes and open new subjects for researches in India. Although there is widespread acceptance of wildlife biology in India as a worthwhile vocation, herpetology is still a budding field and deserves a place in the promotion and study of our biodiversity. A comprehensive field guide to the Indian snake, such as this one, is a basic, vital step towards activating field biologists, amateur naturalists or lay people with a casual interest in nature to learn more about this little known or understood creature.