If you would like to work with animal conservation projects and are interested in crocodiles, snakes and amphibians – this is the perfect gap year project for you.

Herpetology heaven

The extensive Tamil Nadu Crocodile Centre stretches along the coastline of India promising an incredibly interesting and exciting experience. The Tamil Nadu conservation, research and breeding centre contains approximately 2,500 crocodiles. In addition, you will be able to study and handle a wide selection of indigenous snake and amphibian species in their natural habitat. It’s herpetology heaven for crocodile and snake enthusiasts!

World-renowned

The world-renowned Tamil Nadu centre has bred and supplied over 2,000 animals and hundreds of reptile eggs for vital re-stocking and breeding programs throughout India.
You will get plenty of ‘hands on’ work with animal conservation and receive valuable training and experience in the following transferable skills:

• Feeding, cleaning out and maintaining crocodile enclosures
• Assisting with important research projects and data collection
• Giving presentations/demonstrations in local Eco-Awareness camps
• Assisting with valuable research and education
• Act as a visitors’ guide during daytime and nighttime safaris
• Supervising visitors when they are handling pythons and baby crocs
• Participate in wildlife conservation awareness in local schools

This is a great project for volunteers who are keen to fit in varied work with animal projects in different countries.

Have fun too!

Volunteers get the opportunity to experience a different culture, meeting some wonderful local people along the way. Obviously, this is a great opportunity for anyone planning a career in work with animal conservation and related fields. And if you are just an excitement junkie who loves to travel, make new friends and face new challenges, the centre is a super base from which to explore Tamil Nadu. If you fancy a night out, it is quite easy to travel to nearby Chennai. In addition, a relaxing weekend on a sunny beach at Mahaballipuram always proves popular.

Future benefits

You will learn how to adapt quickly to new situations, methods of research and data collection, public speaking and the importance of raising awareness in local areas. Highly transferable, conflict resolution techniques are also implicit in this work, which seeks to educate the local people away from killing what is, from their point of view, dangerous wildlife.

Eco-Tourism

Local conservation education aims to introduce the idea that by conserving these animals in a designated habitat, the local community can look forward to plenty of sustainable employment provided by lucrative eco-tourism. Your involvement is a key component in this process. Only when locals see how many people volunteer for conservation and educational work with animal projects in their area, do they begin to believe in eco-tourism.

Whatever career you choose, your experience in crocodile conservation work, with animals feared by many, whilst also helping rural communities emerge from poverty – will earn the respect of your peers, your professors and your potential employers!