My fascination of the Islands began when I first read Romulus Whitaker's book, 'Common Indian Snakes, A Field Guide'. The checklist contained some amazing snake species with most of them being found in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. After meeting Rom & Harry Andrews, I was disheartened to know that they had with them photos of only about 4-5 species & that very little to no work had been done on Island snakes. Inspired by Rom to work in the Islands & guided by Ashok Captain in taxonomy, began my journey 13 years back. From working among thousands of mosquitoes to crawling in waist deep mangrove mudflats, the work continues, a long way from completion!

-Sameer Ghodke.

"I first met Sameer Ghodke about thirteen years ago when he visited us at the Madras Crocodile Bank. I was immediately impressed with his passion for snakes and his interest in getting people to try and understand how beautiful and (usually) non-threatening they really are. Later, when he started visiting the Andaman and Nicobar Islands I found out that his professionalism extends to travelling under difficult conditions and doing arduous fieldwork, by day and night to find interesting species of snakes. Sameer is not academically trained in herpetology, but like me, his deep interest in the field comes first!"

-Romulus Whitaker.

Contact : sameerghodke73@gmail.com