Crested Serpent Eagle feeding on Burmese Python at Dudhwa Tiger Reserve
Crested Serpent Eagle feeding on Burmese Python at Dudhwa Tiger Reserve

Fifty one years back, exactly on 6th March 1967 when i joined the house namely Garuda House, as a student in Sainik School Balachadi Jamnagar in the State of Gujarat, i saw the logo of my house “Eagle with a snake in the talon” on a painting on the walls of the ante room.

At that time who could have visualized that in the time to come i would be a nature and wildlife lover and would be the first person to shoot with camera , Crested serpent Eagle feeding on a Burmese Python, in the jungles of Dudhwa National Park, Uttar Pradesh, in December 2011.

In the year 2013 my son Bharat Goel who too is a wildlife photographer cum consultant shot Crested Serpent Eagle feeding on a python at Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, another first time at the above park.

Later photograph at Dudhwa adorned the pages of the book namely “Winged Fire “ by Sh Valmik Thapar in 2016.

Crested Serpent Eagle feeding on Indian Python at Ranthambore Tiger Reserve

Based on my blog of last year and after lot of correspondence, a note describing the above behaviour was submitted by me , my son Bharat Goel and an American Researcher (Herpetologist ) Andrew Durso ( at the Dept of Biology, Utah State University ,Logan ,Utah ,U S A). The note was published in the December 2017 issue of Herpetological Review 48(4) 2017,pages 866 and 867 , a Scientific Journal of United States of America.

I thought of sharing with you all (on the eve of Founders Day of the school inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shashtri on 7th March 1965)

Image at Dudhwa National Park on 26th December 2011 and Ranthambore in October 2013.

About Vinod Goel

He joined Customs & Central Excise service in 1982. As a civil servant, his job takes him to various parts of India, which gave him an opportunity to capture our wild heritage, through his camera. His passion for wildlife photography started in 2004 when he was posted at Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and this passion continues till today.