There had been
no reply largely because Rom travels quite a bit but also because, as I
discovered, writing replies to letters is about the last thing these
animal-dedicated persons have time for.
I was in fact beginning to feel quite frustrated thinking that my trip
would not work out when Srilata Swaminadhan (with whom we stayed in
Jaipur) told my father that her sister lived at Mamallapuram and would
help out. Phone calls back and forth and finally it was all organised.
I was overjoyed when my dad's phone call came to Uncle Mano's house
saying I could go.
Babu, Uncle Mano's nephew, reached me by bus to the Croc Bank on the
9th of December and I spent one glorious month there, the nearest I got
to living in the wild. Although I was supposed to return home for
Christmas I begged to be let off and was in the seventh heaven when my
parents agreed. In fact I enjoyed my stay so much, that in March, I
returned to the Croc Bank again (for a brief while), as that was the
breeding season for crocodiles.
The Croc Bank is situated at Mamallapuram which is about 37 kms from
Chennai. It is a huge place with a beach just behind it.
Croc Bank is home to thousands of crocodiles, all of them housed in
pits of varying sizes with sloping walls to enable water to collect at
the centre so that the crocs can sunbathe on the upper part of the
slopes.
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