In India, the reticulated python is only found in the Nicobar islands

 
Siamese crocodile


A Spectacled Cobra during the demonstration. Other common snakes that were demonstrated
were: Vine snake, Checkered Keelback, Rat Snake & Bronzebacked Tree snake. The demo was
also aimed at dispersing some of the common myths about these snakes.

The boards carrying information on the snakes, crocodilians and lizards were quite good. This place is worth a visit if you're in Chennai.

The neighbouring zoo was not as great with the neglected air that some of the zoos in India have. I was saddened at the spectacle of a White bellied Sea Eagle perched on the edge of a tub of water. I don't know whether it was reared in the zoo itself, but immediately memories of a morning watching this bird hunting on the open sea came to my mind. Felt depressed after that.

Later, it was a bit of a coincidence that I was reading Life of Pi in the train where there is a long passage about zoos. He writes that with the possible exception of captured wild animals, most zoo residents live in a kind of "compressed territory" akin to the way we live in houses. Maybe I should quote this:

"A good zoo is a place of carefully worked out coincidence:exactly where an animal* says to us "Stay out!" with its urine or other secretions, we say to it, "Stay in!", with our barriers. Under such conditions of diplomatic peace, all animals are content and we can relax and have a look at each other"

He goes on to point out how animals that could escape from the zoo did not and in fact  returned to the security of their own cages. It was an interesting take on the 'cruelty' factor that most of us associate with zoos. However, he ends the discussion on this note:

"...I don't mean to defend zoos. Close them all down if you want (and let us hope that what wildlife remains can survive in what is left of the natural world). I know zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both"




* I suppose he means an animal in the wild