I want you to put off your preconceptions, your preconceived fears and thoughts about reptiles. Because that is the only way I'm going to get my story across to you. And by the way, if I come across as a sort of rabid, hippie conservationist, it's purely a figment of your imagination. (Laughter)
Htio bih da odbacite sve predrasude, usađene strahove i stavove o reptilima jer vam jedino na taj način mogu prenijeti svoju priču. Usput, ako vam budem odavao dojam zadrtog, hippie zaštitnika životinja, to je samo vaša mašta. (Smijeh)
Okay. We are actually the first species on Earth to be so prolific to actually threaten our own survival. And I know we've all seen images enough to make us numb, of the tragedies that we're perpetrating on the planet. We're kind of like greedy kids, using it all up, aren't we? And today is a time for me to talk to you about water. It's not only because we like to drink lots of it, and its marvelous derivatives, beer, wine, etc. And, of course, watch it fall from the sky and flow in our wonderful rivers, but for several other reasons as well.
Dobro. Mi smo zapravo prva vrsta na Zemlji koja je toliko produktivna da zapravo ugrožava svoj vlastiti opstanak. Znam da smo svi vidjeli hrpu slika koje su nas otupjele, slike tragedija koje smo skrivili ovoj planeti. Ponašamo se kao pohlepna djeca, iskorištavamo sve što možemo, zar ne? Danas je došao trenutak da vam pričam o vodi. Ne samo zato što volimo puno piti vodu i njene predivne derivate, pivo, vino itd., gledati ju kako pada s neba i teče u našim prekrasnim rijekama, nego i zbog nekoliko drugih razloga.
When I was a kid, growing up in New York, I was smitten by snakes, the same way most kids are smitten by tops, marbles, cars, trains, cricket balls. And my mother, brave lady, was partly to blame, taking me to the New York Natural History Museum, buying me books on snakes, and then starting this infamous career of mine, which has culminated in of course, arriving in India 60 years ago, brought by my mother, Doris Norden, and my stepfather, Rama Chattopadhyaya.
Kad sam bio dijete, odrastajući u New Yorku, zmije su me oduševile na isti način kao što većinu klinaca privuku zvrkovi, špekule, auti, vlakovi, loptice. I moja je majka, hrabra žena, dijelom zaslužna za to, jer me vodila u Prirodoslovni muzej u New Yorku, kupovala mi knjige o zmijama sve dok nisam počeo ovu svoju ozloglašenu karijeru, koja je kulminirala, naravno, dolaskom u Indiju prije 60 godina, gdje me dovela moja majka, Doris Norden, i moj očuh, Rama Chattopadhyaya.
It's been a roller coaster ride. Two animals, two iconic reptiles really captivated me very early on. One of them was the remarkable gharial. This crocodile, which grows to almost 20 feet long in the northern rivers, and this charismatic snake, the king cobra. What my purpose of the talk today really is, is to sort of indelibly scar your minds with these charismatic and majestic creatures. Because this is what you will take away from here, a reconnection with nature, I hope.
Bilo je burno. Dvije životinje, dva božanstvena reptila očarala su me vrlo brzo. Jedan od njih bio je nevjerojatni gavijal. Ovaj krokodil, koji može narasti do gotovo šest metara dužine u sjevernim rijekama, i ova karizmatična zmija, kraljevska kobra. Svrha ovog mog današnjeg govora je da na neki način ostavim trag u vašim glavama o ovim karizmatičnim i maestralnim stvorenjima. To je ono što se nadam da ćete ponijeti odavde, ponovno uspostavljenu vezu s prirodom.
The king cobra is quite remarkable for several reasons. What you're seeing here is very recently shot images in a forest nearby here, of a female king cobra making her nest. Here is a limbless animal, capable of gathering a huge mound of leaves, and then laying her eggs inside, to withstand 5 to 10 [meters of rainfall], in order that the eggs can incubate over the next 90 days, and hatch into little baby king cobras. So, she protects her eggs, and after three months, the babies finally do hatch out. A majority of them will die, of course. There is very high mortality in little baby reptiles who are just 10 to 12 inches long.
Kraljevska kobra je veličanstvena iz nekoliko razloga. Ovo što vidite su nedavno snimljene slike iz obližnje šume, ženke kraljevske kobre kako pravi gnijezdo. Vidimo životinju bez udova sposobnu prikupiti ogromnu hrpu lišća i onda snijeti svoja jaja unutra, podnijeti 5 do 10 metara oborina, kako bi jaja prošla inkubaciju kroz sljedećih 90 dana i kako bi se izlegle male kraljevske kobre. Dakle, ona štiti svoja jaja i nakon tri mjeseca se bebe napokon izlegu. Većina će ih naravno umrijeti. Smrtnost kod mladih reptila koji su samo 25 do 30 cm dugi jako je velika.
My first experience with king cobras was in '72 at a magical place called Agumbe, in Karnataka, this state. And it is a marvelous rain forest. This first encounter was kind of like the Maasai boy who kills the lion to become a warrior. It really changed my life totally. And it brought me straight into the conservation fray. I ended up starting this research and education station in Agumbe, which you are all of course invited to visit.
Moje prvo iskustvo s kraljevskim kobrama bilo je ´72. godine, u magičnom mjestu nazvanom Agumbe, u Karnataci, ovoj državi. I to je prekrasna prašuma. Prvi susret je bio nešto kao kad mladi Masai ubije lava da bi postao ratnik. To je potpuno promijenilo moj život. I odvelo me ravno u bavljenje zaštitom životinja. Na kraju sam pokrenuo ovo istraživanje i edukacijsku postaju u Agumbeu, koju ste svi pozvani posjetiti.
This is basically a base wherein we are trying to gather and learn virtually everything about the biodiversity of this incredibly complex forest system, and try to hang on to what's there, make sure the water sources are protected and kept clean, and of course, having a good time too. You can almost hear the drums throbbing back in that little cottage where we stay when we're there. It was very important for us to get through to the people. And through the children is usually the way to go. They are fascinated with snakes. They haven't got that steely thing that you end up either fearing or hating or despising or loathing them in some way. They are interested. And it really works to start with them. This gives you an idea of the size of some of these snakes.
U osnovi, to je baza u kojoj pokušavamo skupiti i naučiti sve o biološkoj raznolikosti ovog nevjerojatno kompleksnog šumskog sistema, pokušavamo očuvati ono što imamo i osigurati da su izvori vode zaštićeni i čisti, i naravno, zabavljamo se također. Skoro da možete i sad čuti udaranje bubnjeva u maloj kolibici gdje budemo kad smo tamo. Za nas je jako važno da dopremo do ljudi. Najlakše je preko djece. Oni su fascinirani zmijama. Oni nemaju onu kočnicu zbog koje ih se na kraju ljudi boje ili ih mrze i preziru na neki način. Djeca su zainteresirana. I stvarno upali ako krenete od njih. Ovo vam pomaže da si zamislite veličinu nekih od tih zmija.
This is an average size king cobra, about 12 feet long. And it actually crawled into somebody's bathroom, and was hanging around there for two or three days. The people of this part of India worship the king cobra. And they didn't kill it. They called us to catch it. Now we've caught more than 100 king cobras over the last three years, and relocated them in nearby forests.
Ovo je kraljevska kobra prosječne veličine, oko 3,5 m dužine, koja se uvukla u nečiju kupaonicu i tamo ostala dva, tri dana. Ljudi iz toga dijela Indije štuju kraljevsku kobru pa je nisu ubili. Zvali su nas da je uhvatimo. Mi smo ulovili više od sto kraljevskih kobri u zadnje tri godine i premjestili ih u obližnje šume.
But in order to find out the real secrets of these creatures [it was necessary] for us to actually insert a small radio transmitter inside [each] snake. Now we are able to follow them and find out their secrets, where the babies go after they hatch, and remarkable things like this you're about to see. This was just a few days ago in Agumbe. I had the pleasure of being close to this large king cobra who had caught a venomous pit viper. And it does it in such a way that it doesn't get bitten itself. And king cobras feed only on snakes. This [little snake] was kind of a tid-bit for it, what we'd call a "vadai" or a donut or something like that. (Laughter)
Ali da bismo saznali sve o tim stvorenjima bilo je potrebno da u njih umetnemo male radio odašiljače. Sada ih možemo pratiti i otkriti njihove tajne, kamo mladi idu nakon što se izlegnu i nevjerojatne stvari koje ćete sada vidjeti. Ovo je bilo prije samo nekoliko dana u Agumbeu. Imao sam zadovoljstvo da budem blizu ovoj velikoj kraljevskoj kobri koja je ulovila otrovnu jamičarku. To je napravila tako da nju samu jamičarka nije ugrizla. Kraljevske kobre se hrane samo zmijama. Ova mala zmija bila je prava poslastica za nju, ono što bismo mi nazvali „vadai“ ili krafna ili tako nešto. (Smijeh)
Usually they eat something a bit larger. In this case a rather strange and inexplicable activity happened over the last breeding season, wherein a large male king cobra actually grabbed a female king cobra, didn't mate with it, actually killed it and swallowed it. We're still trying to explain and come to terms with what is the evolutionary advantage of this.
Obično jedu nešto malo veće. Dogodila se jedna čudna i neobjašnjiva aktivnost tijekom zadnje sezone parenja, kad je veliki mužjak kraljevske kobre zgrabio ženku kraljevske kobre, nije se pario s njom, nego ju je ubio i progutao. Još uvijek to pokušavamo objasniti i shvatiti koje bi mogle biti evolucijske prednosti toga.
But they do also a lot of other remarkable things. This is again, something [we were able to see] by virtue of the fact that we had a radio transmitter in one of the snakes. This male snake, 12 feet long, met another male king cobra. And they did this incredible ritual combat dance. It's very much like the rutting of mammals, including humans, you know, sorting out our differences, but gentler, no biting allowed. It's just a wresting match, but a remarkable activity.
Ali oni isto tako rade i druge nevjerojatne stvari. Ovo je opet nešto što smo mogli vidjeti samo zbog činjenice da smo stavili odašiljač u jednu od zmija; ovaj mužjak, dugačak 3,5m, sreo je drugog mužjaka kraljevske kobre. Otplesali su jedan nevjerojatni ritualno-borbeni ples. Vrlo je sličan tjeranju kod sisavaca, uključujući i čovjeka; znate, obračunavanje, ali nježnije, ugrizi nisu dozvoljeni. To je samo hrvanje, ali svejedno nevjerojatna aktivnost.
Now, what are we doing with all this information? What's the point of all this? Well, the king cobra is literally a keystone species in these rainforests. And our job is to convince the authorities that these forests have to be protected. And this is one of the ways we do it, by learning as much as we can about something so remarkable and so iconic in the rainforests there, in order to help protect trees, animals and of course the water sources.
E sad, što mi radimo sa svim tim informacijama? Koja je svrha svega toga? Dakle, kraljevska kobra je doslovno ključna vrsta u tim prašumama. Naš je posao da uvjerimo vlast da te šume moraju biti zaštićene. Jedan od načina da to učinimo je da naučimo sve što možemo o nečemu tako izvanrednom i tako božanstvenom u prašumi, kako bismo pomogli zaštititi drveće, životinje i, naravno, vodu.
You've all heard, perhaps, of Project Tiger which started back in the early '70s, which was, in fact, a very dynamic time for conservation. We were piloted, I could say, by a highly autocratic stateswoman, but who also had an incredible passion for environment. And this is the time when Project Tiger emerged. And, just like Project Tiger, our activities with the king cobra is to look at a species of animal so that we protect its habitat and everything within it. So, the tiger is the icon. And now the king cobra is a new one.
Možda ste svi čuli za Projekt tigar koji je pokrenut u ranim ´70-ima, koje su zapravo bile vrlo dinamično doba za zaštitu prirode. Vodila nas je, mogao bih reći, vrlo diktatorski nastrojena političarka, ali s velikom strašću za okoliš. U to je vrijeme Projekt tigar nastao. Isto kao u tom Projektu, naša djelatnost danas s kobrama je da se usredotočimo na jednu vrstu kako bismo zaštitili njeno stanište i sve u njemu. Dakle, tigar je ikona. A sada je i kraljevska kobra nova ikona.
All the major rivers in south India are sourced in the Western Ghats, the chain of hills running along the west coast of India. It pours out millions of gallons every hour, and supplies drinking water to at least 300 million people, and washes many, many babies, and of course feeds many, many animals, both domestic and wild, produces thousands of tons of rice.
Sve velike rijeke u južnoj Indiji izviru u Zapadnim Gatima, lancu brežuljaka koji se prostire duž zapadne indijske obale. Milijuni litara protječu svakog sata i opskrbljuju pitkom vodom najmanje 300 milijuna ljudi, peru se mnoga djeca, hrane mnoge životinje, domaće i divlje, proizvode se tisuće tona riže.
And what do we do? How do we respond to this? Well, basically, we dam it, we pollute it, we pour in pesticides, weedicides, fungicides. You drink it in peril of your life. And the thing is, it's not just big industry. It's not misguided river engineers who are doing all this; it's us. It seems that our citizens find the best way to dispose of garbage are in water sources. Okay. Now we're going north, very far north.
A što mi radimo? Kako mi odgovaramo na to? Pa, zapravo postavljamo brane, zagađujemo ju, usipavamo razne vrste pesticida, herbicida, fungicida. Pijemo vodu koja ugrožava naš život. Stvar je u tome što to ne radi samo krupna industrija. Ne rade to samo zabludjeli riječni inžinjeri -- to radimo i mi. Čini se da je bacanje smeća u vodu našim građanima najbolji način da ga se riješe. Dobro. Idemo sada na sjever, daleko na sjever.
North central India, the Chambal River is where we have our base. This is the home of the gharial, this incredible crocodile. It is an animal which has been on the Earth for just about 100 million years. It survived even during the time that the dinosaurs died off. It has remarkable features. Even though it grows to 20 feet long, since it eats only fish it's not dangerous to human beings. It does have big teeth, however, and it's kind of hard to convince people if an animal has big teeth, that it's a harmless creature.
Sjever središnje Indije -- na rijeci Chambal imamo svoje sjedište. Ovo je i dom gavijala, nevjerojatnog krokodila. To je životinja koja je na Zemlji već nekih 100 milijuna godina. Preživjela je čak i izumiranje dinosaura. Ima izvanredne osobine. Iako naraste i do 6 metara, jede samo ribu pa nije opasan za ljude. Međutim, ima velike zube i teško je uvjeriti ljude da je životinja s velikim zubima bezopasno stvorenje.
But we, actually, back in the early '70s, did surveys, and found that gharial were extremely rare. In fact, if you see the map, the range of their original habitat was all the way from the Indus in Pakistan to the Irrawaddy in Burma. And now it's just limited to a couple of spots in Nepal and India. So, in fact at this point there are only 200 breeding gharial left in the wild. So, starting in the mid-'70s when conservation was at the fore, we were actually able to start projects which were basically government supported to collect eggs from the wild from the few remaining nests and release 5,000 baby gharial back to the wild. And pretty soon we were seeing sights like this. I mean, just incredible to see bunches of gharial basking on the river again.
U ranim smo 70-ima napravili istraživanja i saznali kako je gavijal jako rijedak. Zapravo, ako biste pogledali kartu, vidjeli biste da mu se prvotno stanište prostiralo od Indusa u Pakistanu do Irrawaddyja u Burmi. Sada je ograničeno na nekoliko mjesta u Nepalu i Indiji. Tako da danas postoje samo 200 gavijala u divljini sposobnih za reprodukciju. Dakle, sredinom 70-ih, kada je zaštita životinja bila stvar primarne važnosti, bili smo u mogućnosti započeti projekte u kojima nas je vlada podupirala, a sastojali su se u skupljanju jaja iz rijetkih preostalih divljih gnijezda i puštanju 5.000 mladih gavijala u divljinu. Uskoro smo viđali ovakve prizore. Mislim, jednostavno je prekrasno vidjeti hrpe gavijala kako ponovno uživaju u rijeci.
But complacency does have a tendency to breed contempt. And, sure enough, with all the other pressures on the river, like sand mining, for example, very, very heavy cultivation all the way down to the river's edge, not allowing the animals to breed anymore, we're looking at even more problems building up for the gharial, despite the early good intentions. Their nests hatching along the riverside producing hundreds of hatchlings. It's just an amazing sight. This was actually just taken last year. But then the monsoon arrives, and unfortunately downriver there is always a dam or there is always a barrage, and, shoop, they get washed down to their doom.
Ali samozadovoljstvo zna uzrokovati prezir. I sigurno je da sve što se događa na rijeci, kao na primjer iskopavanje pijeska, žestoka poljoprivreda cijelom dužinom rijeke, ne dopušta životinjama rasplod pa se suočavamo sa sve većim problemima za gavijala, usprkos svim ranijim dobrim namjerama. Njihova gnijezda uzduž rijeke koja proizvode stotine mladih. To je jednostavno predivan prizor. Ovo je slikano prošle godine. Ali onda stigne sezona monsuna, a na nesreću, niz rijeku je uvijek brana ili nasip i shoop, budu povučeni vodom prema svojoj propasti.
Luckily there is still a lot of interest. My pals in the Crocodile Specialist Group of the IUCN, the [Madras Crocodile Bank], an NGO, the World Wildlife Fund, the Wildlife Institute of India, State Forest Departments, and the Ministry of Environment, we all work together on stuff. But it's possibly, and definitely not enough. For example, in the winter of 2007 and 2008, there was this incredible die-off of gharial, in the Chambal River. Suddenly dozens of gharial appearing on the river, dead. Why? How could it happen?
Srećom, još uvijek postoji zanimanje. Moji prijatelji u Crocodile Specialist Group iz IUCN-a, Madras Crocodile Bank, nevladina organizacija, World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Institute of India, State Forest Department i Ministarstvo okoliša -- mi svi radimo zajedno na projektima. Ali vrlo je moguće, zapravo definitivno je da to nije dovoljno. Na primjer, zime 2007. i 2008. godine, pojavilo se nevjerojatno odumiranje gavijala u rijeci Chambal. Puno gavijala se odjedanput počelo pojavljivati mrtvo u rijeci. Zašto? Kako se to dogodilo?
This is a relatively clean river. The Chambal, if you look at it, has clear water. People scoop water out of the Chambal and drink it, something you wouldn't do in most north Indian rivers. So, in order to try to find out the answer to this, we got veterinarians from all over the world working with Indian vets to try to figure out what was happening. I was there for a lot of the necropsies on the riverside. And we actually looked through all their organs and tried to figure out what was going on. And it came down to something called gout, which, as a result of kidney breakdown is actually uric acid crystals throughout the body, and worse in the joints, which made the gharial unable to swim. And it's a horribly painful death.
To je relativno čista rijeka. Chambal, ako ju pogledate, ima bistru vodu. Ljudi uzimaju vodu iz nje i piju je, nešto što se ne radi u većini drugih rijeka na sjeveru Indije. Da bismo otkrili koji je odgovor na ta pitanja, zaposlili smo veterinare iz cijelog svijeta da u suradnji s lokalnim veterinarima otkriju što se dogodilo. Bio sam prisutan na mnogo nekropsija na rijeci. Stvarno smo pregledali sve organe i pokušali otkriti što se zbiva. Na kraju se radilo o nečemu što se naziva giht -- nakon što bubrezi prestanu raditi, kristali mokraćne kiseline šire se po tijelu, a što je najgore i po zglobovima što je onemogućilo gavijalima da plivaju. A to je užasno bolna smrt.
Just downriver from the Chambal is the filthy Yamuna river, the sacred Yamuna river. And I hate to be so ironic and sarcastic about it but it's the truth. It's just one of the filthiest cesspools you can imagine. It flows down through Delhi, Mathura, Agra, and gets just about every bit of effluent you can imagine. So, it seemed that the toxin that was killing the gharial was something in the food chain, something in the fish they were eating. And, you know, once a toxin is in the food chain everything is affected, including us.
Samo malo nizvodno od Chambala nalazi se prljava rijeka Yamuna, sveta rijeka Yamuna. Žao mi je što moram biti tako ironičan i sarkastičan oko toga, ali to je istina. To je jedna od najprljavijih septičkih jama što možete zamisliti. Teče kroz Delhi, Mathuru, Agru i dobiva sav otpad koji možete zamisliti. Dakle, ispalo je da je toksin koji je ubijao gavijala dolazio iz hranidbenog lanca, iz ribe koju su jeli. Znate, jednom kad je toksin u hranidbenom lancu, utječe na sve pa i na nas.
Because these rivers are the lifeblood of people all along their course. In order to try to answer some of these questions, we again turn to technology, to biological technology, in this case, again, telemetry, putting radios on 10 gharial, and actually following their movements. They're being watched everyday as we speak, to try to find out what this mysterious toxin is.
Ove rijeke su vrlo važne za ljude cijelim svojim tokom. Da bismo odgovorili na sva ta pitanja, opet smo se okrenuli tehnologiji biološkoj tehnologiji, u ovom slučaju opet telemetriji -- stavili smo radio na 10 gavijala i pratili njihova kretanja. Još ih uvijek svaki dan pratimo da bismo otkrili što je taj misteriozni toksin.
The Chambal river is an absolutely incredible place. It's a place that's famous to a lot of you who know about the bandits, the dacoits who used to work up there. And there still are quite a few around. But Poolan Devi was one [of them]. Which actually Shekhar Kapur made an incredible movie, "The Bandit Queen," which I urge you to see. You'll get to see the incredible [Chambal] landscape as well.
Rijeka Chambal je apsolutno nevjerojatno mjesto. Poznato je mnogima koji znaju za bandite, dakoite koji su tamo obitavali. Ima ih još uvijek. Poolan Devi bio je jedan od njih. Shekhar Kapur je napravio izvanredan film, Bandit Queen, koji morate pogledati. U njemu možete isto tako vidjeti i divan chambalski krajolik.
But, again, heavy fishing pressures. This is one of the last repositories of the Ganges river dolphin, various species of turtles, thousands of migratory birds, and fishing is causing problems like this. And now [these] new elements of human intolerance for river creatures like the gharial means that if they don't drown in the net, then they simply cut their beaks off. Animals like the Ganges river dolphin which is just down to a few left, and it is also critically endangered.
No, imamo i velike izlove ribe. Ovo je jedno od zadnjih staništa gangeškog riječkog dupina, različitih vrsta kornjača, tisuća migrirajućih ptica, a ribolov izaziva probleme kao ove. Ti novi elementi ljudske intolerancije za riječna stvorenja kao što je gavijal znače da će im, ako se prije toga ne utope u ribolovnoj mreži, jednostavno odrezati kljunove. Životinjama kao što je gangeški riječki dupin, kojeg ima samo nekolicina i koji je kritično ugrožen.
So, who is next? Us? Because we are all dependent on these water sources. So, we all know about the Narmada river, the tragedies of dams, the tragedies of huge projects which displace people and wreck river systems without providing livelihoods. And development just basically going berserk, for a double figure growth index, basically. So, we're not sure where this story is going to end, whether it's got a happy or sad ending. And climate change is certainly going to turn all of our theories and predictions on their heads. We're still working hard at it. We've got a lot of a good team of people working up there.
Dakle, tko je sljedeći? Mi? Jer svi smo mi ovisni o vodi. Svi znamo za rijeku Narmada, tragediju o branama, tragediju velikih projekata koji premještaju ljude i uništavaju riječne sisteme bez da pružaju osiguranu egzistenciju. Razvoj je poludio i to sve zbog indeksa rasta od dvije brojke. Stoga, nismo sigurni gdje će se ova priča završiti i hoće li imati sretan ili tužan završetak. A klimatske promjene će svakako prodrmati sve naše teorije i predviđanja. Još uvijek marljivo radimo na njima. Imamo vrlo dobru ekipu ljudi koja radi na tome.
And the thing is, you know, the decision makers, the folks in power, they're up in their bungalows and so on in Delhi, in the city capitals. They are all supplied with plenty of water. It's cool. But out on the rivers there are still millions of people who are in really bad shape. And it's a bleak future for them. So, we have our Ganges and Yamuna cleanup project. We've spent hundreds of millions of dollars on it, and nothing to show for it. Incredible. So, people talk about political will. During the die-off of the gharial we did galvanize a lot of action. Government cut through all the red tape, we got foreign vets on it. It was great. So, we can do it. But if you stroll down to the Yamuna or to the Gomati in Lucknow, or to the Adyar river in Chennai, or the Mula-Mutha river in Pune, just see what we're capable of doing to a river. It's sad.
Stvar je u tome, znate, da donositelji odluka, ljudi koji imaju moć, sjede u svojim uredima u Delhiju, u glavnim gradovima. I svi imaju puno vode na raspolaganju. To je super. Ali vani, uz rijeke su još uvijek milijuni ljudi koji su u stvarno lošem stanju. Njih čeka tužna budućnost. Dakle, pokrenuli smo projekte za čišćenje rijeka Ganges i Yamuna. Potrošili smo stotine milijuna dolara na njih i nemamo ništa kao rezultat. Nevjerojatno. Ljudi pričaju o političkoj volji. Tijekom odumiranja gavijala uspijeli smo pokrenuti razne akcije. Vlada je zaobišla birokraciju, doveli smo strane veterinare da rade na tome. Bilo je super. Znači, možemo to. Ali ako se prošetate do Yamune, ili Gomatija u Lucknowu, ili rijeke Adyar u Chennaiju, ili rijeke Mula-muta u Puneu, vidjet ćete što smo sposobni učiniti rijekama. To je tužno.
But I think the final note really is that we can do it. The corporates, the artists, the wildlife nuts, the good old everyday folks can actually bring these rivers back. And the final word is that there is a king cobra looking over our shoulders. And there is a gharial looking at us from the river. And these are powerful water totems. And they are going to disturb our dreams until we do the right thing. Namaste. (Applause)
No, mislim da bi zadnja napomena trebala ipak biti da mi to možemo. Birokrati, umjetnici, zaljubljenici u prirodu, dobri stari obični ljudi zapravo mogu pomoći rijekama. I na kraju, kraljevska kobra nas gleda. I gavijal nas promatra iz rijeke. To su moćni vodeni totemi. I oni će nam uznemiravati snove sve dok ne učinimo pravu stvar. Namaskar. (Pljesak)
Chris Anderson: Thanks, Rom. Thanks a lot. You know, most people are terrified of snakes. And there might be quite a few people here who would be very glad to see the last king cobra bite the dust. Do you have those conversations with people? How do you really get them to care?
Chris Anderson: Hvala, Rom. Puno hvala. Znaš, većina ljudi se užasava zmija. I možda ima dosta ljudi ovdje koji bi bili jako sretni da vide zadnju kraljevsku kobru kako nestaje s lica Zemlje. Vodiš li takve razgovore s ljudima? Kako ih nagovoriš da promijene mišljenje?
Romulus Whitaker: I take the sort of humble approach, I guess you could say. I don't say that snakes are huggable exactly. It's not like the teddy bear. But I sort of -- there is an innocence in these animals. And when the average person looks at a cobra going "Ssssss!" like that, they say, "My god, look at that angry, dangerous creature." I look at it as a creature who is totally frightened of something so dangerous as a human being. And that is the truth. And that's what I try to get out. (Applause)
Romulus Whitaker: Mogao bih reći da im skromno pristupam. Ne govorim da su zmije zapravo slatke i mazne. Nisu one kao plišani medvjedići. Ali ja -- postoji nekakva nevinost kod tih životinja. Kada prosječna osoba pogleda kobru kako ide: “Ssssss!“, kaže: “Bože, pogledaj to ljuto opasno stvorenje!“ Ja ju gledam kao stvorenje koje je užasnuto zbog nečega tako opasnog kao što je ljudsko biće. I to je istina. I to je ono što im pokušavam dočarati. (Pljesak)
CA: Now, incredible footage you showed of the viper being killed. You were saying that that hasn't been filmed before.
CA: Evo, nevjerojatna snimka koja pokazuje smrt otrovnice. Rekao si da to nije nikad dosad bilo snimljeno.
RW: Yes, this is actually the first time anyone of us knew about it, for one thing. As I said, it's just like a little snack for him, you know? Usually they eat larger snakes like rat snakes, or even cobras. But this guy who we're following right now is in the deep jungle. Whereas other king cobras very often come into the human interface, you know, the plantations, to find big rat snakes and stuff. This guy specializes in pit vipers. And the guy who is working there with them, he's from Maharashtra, he said, "I think he's after the nusha." (Laughter) Now, the nusha means the high. Whenever he eats the pit viper he gets this little venom rush. (Laughter)
RM: Da, ovo je zapravo prvi put da je itko od nas to vidio. Kao što sam već rekao, to je kao mali zalogajčić za njega, znate? Obično jedu veće zmije, kao guje ili čak i kobre. Ali ovaj mužjak kojeg pratimo je sada duboko u džungli. Druge kraljevske kobre često dođu na ljudska područja, znate, plantaže, da nađu veće zmije. Ovaj se mužjak specijalizirao za jamičarke. Tip koji tamo radi s njima, on je iz Maharashtre, rekao je: „ Mislim da on to radi samo zbog nushe.“ (Smijeh) E sad, nusha znači adrenalin. Kad god krene jesti jamičarku, digne mu se adrenalin. (Smijeh)
CA: Thanks Rom. Thank you. (Applause)
CA: Hvala, Rom. Hvala ti. (Pljesak)