Romulus Whitaker

Romulus Whitaker is an Indian researcher. His full name is Romulus Earl Whitaker. Romulus was born on 23 May 1943 in New York City, United States. He is an Indian Herpetologist, wildlife conservationist. He has also founded the Madras Snake Park, the Andaman and Nicobar Environment Trust (ANET), and the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust. He is the founder-director of Snake Park, which is located in Chennai. He is currently contributing an effort to save the Gharial, a critically endangered Crocodile species. He is a member of the Bombay Natural History Society's editorial board and a member of the advisory committee. He also co-founded the Tamil Nadu Society for Social Forestry Research. His mother’s name is Doris Norden, who was an artist. His father served in the United States Army. His parents got divorced, and his mother got married to Rama Chattopadhyay.

Whitaker has won many awards and honors. He won Whitely Award in 2005 for his work, which is considered as UK’s top conservation prize. He became the associate laureate in Rolex Award in 2008. An Indian Boa, Eryx Whitakeri, is named in his honor. Another species, Krait, Bungarus Romulusi, is named in his honor. He was honored with the Padma Shri award, which is the fourth-highest Civilian Award by the government of India, in 2018.