What's it like to work in a Crocodile Sanctuary?

The bus rolled off while my cousin was passing on some information in Tamil to the conductor, which I think was about my Tamil skills. Few minutes later he said, 'Tamil raada neeku?' (literally: you don't know Tamil?). I was shocked and then immediately went into a state of comfort knowing that he spoke the same language as I did - Telugu. He was talking about how his family is spread over different parts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. While giving him the attention he needed I placed my ruck sack flat in the gap behind a set of seats. The other bag was with me. The bus going on route 118 towards Mamallapuram grunted through the Koyembed Bus Stop (CMBT) gates and stopped just after 5 minutes in front of a city bus stop.

 I've only heard about this but have never seen it happen. A man walked in with a big block print cloth bag and placed it in the aisle. Then he stepped out and came back in with a big plastic container with watermelons in it. Then his wife, I presume, who was standing outside was calling out for a person, maybe friend, because he then carried in, one by one, 11 white plastic suthli bags that were filled so much that not one more thing would go into it. Like the stomach of a true Hyderabadi after finishing his/her biriyani. He placed those bags in the rear most seats, one on top of the other. The back of my head could feel a bulging bag. I feared I would be crushed by those bags if the driver hit the break hard. I looked out for a while and then pulled out the book I was reading in the flight. Em and The Big Hoom. The constant talk, between the husband sitting in front of me with a huge sack of bhendi in his lap and his wife who was sitting behind me muching on something she had in her hands, didnt matter much. My friend says that the book is life changing, maybe.  Within a few minutes, sleep started to kick in. My body had to cover the lack of sleep the previous night. So I put the book back and slept only to be woken up twice by two different people asking me to move inside. I didn't have the time to even register their faces. I moved in and I went back to sleep. I was woken up the third time by the conductor right before the bus reached The Madras Crocodile Trust Bank. I grabbed my luggage and was ready to get down. 

 This was the first time I ever visited this place. I asked for Mr. Nikhil and the person behind the counter asked me if I was here for the volunteer program. I nodded and a man came from the entry gate and guided me in. The placed seem pretty darn cool. It was unlike what my friends had described it as. Not smelly, and definitely not bad. I was introduced to Mr. Vineeth and then Mr. Nihkil (a.k.a Nik). I was shown my room or more precisely the dormitory. Toby was still asleep and so took time to open the door. I settled myself in and went ahead for break fast. I met the other two volunteers there- Yamini and Pallavi. Pallavi Raghu I think, or Raghavaran. Well, Pallavi R. Yamini gave me a quick run through of what kind if work I can expect and the other details. 

 The 'To-do list' is placed in front of the office. We made a mental note of it and were off to clean  Pen 25B.  We scrubbed the sides of the pond, cleared the floor off the indistinguishable mixture of sand, poop and other dirt. 

 Next was lab work. We were expected to measure the length, breadth, weight, and check for viability. Mr. Ajay helped us out. He said that all of the 79 eggs would be destroyed. 

 Counter-intuitive right? Yes it is. This is a conservation center which specializes in crocodiles and it is the crocodile eggs that they are about ti destroy. However inhumane that sounds, the reason behind that is strong. The fear of exponential growth of that particular specie coupled with factors such as their long life span and space requirements make it unfeasible for the MCBT workers to let every egg hatch. The enclosures would become crowded and that would not make any animal happy. Moreover, the park already hosts more than 2000 crocodiles of various species. They have all except some 5 species and they are working on it. After the measurements were taken,  the eggs were thrown into a different basket without a care. Few broke but it didn't matter. 

 Vineeth was giving a talk on (insert the forgotten tortoise specie name) tortoises and so we went there. We went in and stood without doing much, just listening. I think it was their feeding time. They were crawling towards out feet. One even tried chewing on Vineeth's toe. They were fed leafy green vegetables and a whole pile of them were brought inside. The tortoises are fed twice a day. As we started to remove the suthli from around the vegetables, Vinneth asked us to entertain the tortoises. I was confused so I first did what Yamini and Toby were doing. They were feeding the tortoises with hand. I bent down and held out my leaves filled hand to the tortoise. Shy at first, later comfortable. He went chomp, chomp, chomp and the whole bunch of Palakaura leaves were gone. They moved fast. Well, compared to what speed I thought they actually moved at, they moved very fast. They had long necks that they use to reach the food easily. Each of the tortoise was 14 years old and weighed around 70 kilograms. They were big. They reached my knees and had hard shells. I always thought that the shell was dead. Like our nails. Turns out that the shell can pick up sensations from outside. How did I get to know that? Well, if you ever get a chance to tickle one in the back do it. It'll wiggle and dance. 

 The rest of the evening was just Vineeth showing us around the park. It must've been the zillionth time for him. Later we just went onto the beach and enjoyed the sound of the waves rolling over the small sand particles ft. The shouts of random people. 

 The rooms. Yes. I totally forgot about them. They're spacious right now because its only the two of us. However, its meant for 4 people and in times of need more than that. The extra people would sleep in the attic I suppose. I hear that Toffee, the ever friendly attitude showing dog, for some strange reason loves to sleep in the boys dormitory. Hmm. 


 Well, tomorrow is Sunday and its going to be a crowded park day, with maybe children crying to teenagers throwing food at animals in order to get them into action. Frankly, crocodiles are boring exhibits. They don't move much, they don't eat much, they don't do much of anything except burn just about 300 calories per day and grow in size, the way any object grows. They move from water to dry area and often sit still with their snouts wide open. They're not lazing around mind you. They are regulating their body temperature. So crocodiles do two things - regulate body temperature and sleep. And eat once in a while. Nevertheless, they are beautiful creatures. Ajay says that the beauty if crocodiles is that they haven't changed much since the era of dinosaurs. Sounds cool, no? I think it is. 

 I'm gonna go now. Tomorrow is a day filled with work it seems.