Romulus Earl Whitaker III (b. 1943) is unquestionably one of the best-known figures in the wildlife conservation scene in India. He is famous for establishing the Madras Snake Park, the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and the Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Team, as well as for his work conserving India's rainforests—the habitat of so many endangered species. Internationally, he has received the Rolex Award for Enterprise as well as the Whitley Award for his contribution to nature conservation. In 2018 he was awarded the Padma Shri. Whitaker has co-authored Snakes of India: The Field Guide with Ashok Captain, which is considered the definitive work on the subject.
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">A legend in the arena of wildlife conservation and affectionately hailed as the ‘Snakeman of India’, Romulus Whitaker has had a lifelong love affair with the ‘fierce creatures’ that share our planet. This first volume of his fascinating memoir brings the India of the 1950s and the US of the 1960s to life.</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">When his mother married and moved to Mumbai, Whitaker was transplanted from a conventional childhood in the US to what was for him the exciting world of India. At boarding school in Kodai, he kept a pet python under his bed and realized that all he really wanted to do was work with snakes. Sent to the US for college, Whitaker preferred snakes to lecture halls and left to work in a snake farm. The adventures that ensue are hair-raising and often hilarious.</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px;">Snakes, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll</em> tells the story of a boy who would become one of the greatest conservationists of his generation, discovering the wonders of India’s extraordinary natural world.</p>
