An Audience with the
King .
Part 1:
King Cobra field research at Agumbe.
Dr Seshadri K S, Research Director of the facility, provides an overview into the
fascinating work being conducted at this research station in southwest India.
A
gumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS) is a
permanent field station of the Madras Crocodile
Bank Trust, located on a 4.5-acre site, in the midst of
Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary and Agumbe Reserve
Forest, in the Shimoga District of Karnataka. The place
was set up by Rom Whitaker and his team in 2005
with financial support from the Doris Norden
Chattopadhyaya Foundation and the Whitley Fund for
Nature. The vision was to establish a base for
long-term ecological research and biodiversity
conservation. Agumbe (650m. above sea level) is one
of the wettest parts of South India, receiving a mean
annual rainfall of over 7,500mm., and is dominated by
tropical wet evergreen forest, which is contiguous
with Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary and Kudremukh
National Park. The region is renowned for its
biodiversity across plant and animal groups. Among
the commonly encountered fauna is the King Cobra
(Ophiophagus hannah) - the world’s largest venomous
snake, with recorded lengths of over 5.5 metres.
In the year 2005, a Memorandum of Understanding
was signed between the Karnataka Forest Depart-
ment and the staff of the Agumbe Rainforest Research
Station to implement a comprehensive research plan
entitled the King Cobra Ecology and Conservation
Project (KCEC). The major goal of the KCEC has been
to enhance our understanding of this charismatic
snake and ensure critical conservation measures are
undertaken. The project encompasses two broad
objectives:
1.