It’s not just his love for wildlife and the feared reptiles that makes Gerry Martin a conservationist. It’s his approach towards conservation as being a part of the great system rather than a custodian, which gives his argument an edge

Gerry Martin and his wildlife camps are extremely popular with children. After all, he shares their excitement when it comes to the “creepy-crawlies”. And just like most of his school-going visitors, studying and homework weren’t his first love either. Today, despite all the “ists” to his credit – conservationist, naturalist, herpetologist (one who specialises in the study of reptiles and amphibians) – Martin remains an explorer at heart, ready to investigate nature’s many mysteries and share them with like-minded people.

One of the few sane voices when it comes to discussing and working on conservation, protecting wildlife, and raising awareness about it, Martin combines his various experiences and spearheads work that has conservation focus and implication. Projects that he runs or is involved with range from community-based sustainable conservation, to snakebite mitigation. He also strongly believes that conservation in India needs to be made viable for grassroot-level stakeholders.

“In 2005, I was working on various random projects, conducting camps and working on conservation initiatives, when a friend suggested that I put everything under one banner,” he says. And The Gerry Martin Project (TGMP) was born. The venture is Martin’s way to show how conservation can be the foundation of a responsible, for-profit business. And yes, those of you who have heard he bred Indian king cobras, it is true; Martin was a part of the team in 1995, and raised the world’s longest venomous snakes successfully.

With TGMP, Martin’s big priority is to address the snakebite issue in the country. “India loses over 40,000 people to snakebite every year, and we are part of a team that is working hard to solve this issue,” he says. Also on the anvil are building a bigger team, and kick-starting another site for a field station in the Western Ghats.

Hatching of an idea

Martin’s earliest memories of childhood are as one who was attracted to animals and enjoyed interacting with them. If you are comparing notes with your own childhood, stop. For when he was just about five years old, Martin remembers holding his first snake – a red sand boa.

Interaction with wildlife and outdoors was easy for him in his early days since he grew up in a farm outside Bangalore. “In those days, it was truly wild, with lots of wildlife – from jackal and chameleons to cobras,” Martin recalls. Plus, his parents were extremely supportive of him. “My mother worked hard with me to help me learn how to learn,” he says.

Before his Bangalore days, Martin’s family used to live in Ahmedabad and as a little boy, he visited a local animal park called Sundarvan with his Montessori school. He says he doesn’t remember, but his teacher and mother tell him he enjoyed playing with pythons.

The interest grew and the connection with wildlife became stronger with Martin weaning off on National Geographic’s VHS tapes. “I was never focused on my school work and always dreamed of doing that kind of ‘stuff’ in my life,” Martin reminisces. When his classmates would talk about going into space, becoming a doctor, an engineer or a doctor, he would always come back to “reptile expert”.

And although failing class 12 might not have felt good back then, it only paved the way for the path he is still walking on. After spending a little time wandering around, trekking, fishing and simply enjoying the wild, Martin decided that the one place he would be able to feel fulfilled would be working with Rom Whitaker – herpetologist, wildlife conservationist and founder of Madras Snake Park, and Madras Crocodile Bank Trust. “So I landed on his doorstep early one morning, and begged him to let me stay. He did!” says Martin, chuckling, adding how from there on, every day for him had purpose, made sense to him, and brought about an excitement in what he was doing and learning. “Plus, wildlife and conservation are fields that I can relate to perfectly and feel absolutely comfortable and driven pursuing. What else could I do?” he asks.

Starting to grow

While working with Whitaker, Martin started working on film and documentary projects in 1995. Shortly after that, he was approached to work on various other films and in 2000, the National Geographic Channel asked him to be its face in Asia; for three years, Martin worked as “India’s first National Geographic Channel Adventurer”, the face for the channel.

A candid Martin confesses he doesn’t like television, however. “When I was working on television programmes, I achieved very little actual work in the field,” he admits, adding how most of his time was spent in doing various programmes on reptiles and other wildlife, primarily for entertainment. “It really wasn’t fulfilling to me,” he feels.

So he gave it up, and joined the field of education, which was his way to trying to be a part of building relevant curriculum and enabling children to learn from experiences in the outdoors. He joined iDiscoveri Education, an innovative education company, and helped the company set up operations in south India

He also continued with his conservation work, looking at ways to share his learning from the outdoors and use these principals in the work he did with children and adults. With TGMP, Martin wants to reach to even more people. It’s been anything but easy, however. “Being a responsible business poses numerous challenges. High up on that list is the fact that there aren’t many precedents that one can follow,” he rues, adding how much of what TGMP has done and continues to do, is quite new. “I have also noticed that much of what we do is quickly taken up by many other operators, not all of whom are particularly value-driven when it comes to conservation,” says Martin. 

The tale ahead

Martin and dedicated conservationists such as him have brought about positive changes in the past decade, and he believes a lot more people are now talking about, and are dedicated to, conservation. “However, the actual premises and perspectives of conservation seem to remain,” says Martin, adding, “I think the biggest flaw in this thinking is the exclusive nature of conservation efforts that strive to keep people out of and separate from nature.” He feels it is crucial we realise that we are a part of this entire system and unwaveringly adhere to what is best for the ecosystems that we affect.

Martin welcomes current policies on conservation and the environment being geared towards renewable energy, but feels it doesn’t address the direct issue of biodiversity conservation and things such as human-wildlife conflict. “We need to approach conservation more as being who are part of a great system, and less as managers or custodians of a subservient system.”

We’re rooting for you, Gerry Martin!