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Call of the crocodile
 A
crocodile comes across as agonisingly grotesque. Dirt-filled eyes blinking not once, a mile-long snout housing white
weapons of mass destruction (read teeth), a body full of ups and downs like desert sands, a slimy long ugly tail that
irritates and frightens you at the same time.
This feeling of nausea hits you more than a thousand times after you enter
Crocodile
Bank, situated on the outskirts of Chennai, in the ECR. House to thousands of crocodiles and reptiles, the Crocodile Bank is a
tourists destination -
something that Chennaivasis should be proud of. (That they themselves haven't visited the bank is an altogether
different issue...There was a 20-year-old Agraiite who hadn't visited the Taj Mahal at all...So there's nothing new here.)
A zoo is a wonderful place that fills you with joy and glee. Till you realised that they were caged and cramped there, and
not allowed to be in their natural environment. Natural environment or not, who will ever stand and gaze admiringly at a
crocodile for half an hour? A monkey, okay; a lion, yes; an elephant, surely; but a
crocodile?
 All these arguments seemed to be unheard-of by an animal-crazy pal. He stared and admired every slimy reptile in the
bank as if it was Aishwarya Rai. His description of the va-va-voom figure of a huge male crocodile would have made a
teenage girl describing Hrithik go green with envy.
Places like Crocodile Bank can be ideal for a cool, boring Sunday; but to appreciate the wonders of the place, one has
to have some knowledge of reptiles and the like, and a natural curiosity to ask questions and seek answers about the
creatures there.
The Crocodile Bank has an amazing variety of crocs and other creatures. It is an environmentalist's delight. Anybody
with a bit of interest in herpetology would love the place but others would get bored.
Srinivasa Ramanujam
Published on 7th July, 2004
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