Ram Chandra risked life for research

UNSUNG hero Ram Chandra was a very special breed of man.

Ram Chandra and a black head python. Picture: Peter Holt

UNSUNG hero Ram Chandra was a very special breed of man.

He was one of those dedicated people who devoted their lives to the betterment of others.

For nearly 45 years Ram Chandra sacrificed his living standards and jeopardized his own life for the cause of research and teaching.

He was rightly claimed as Mackay's son considering his association and life cause to research and education into Australia's most dangerous snakes in order to save lives.

As a part of the The Carnival of Eastern Wonders in the 1940s, Ram - along with Nazir Shah, travelled the show circuit with The Pit of Death, handling venomous and non-venomous snakes, gaining knowledge which was to prove invaluable.

It was his work with the deadly taipan, Australia's most venomous snake that earned him the title The Taipan Man.

In Mackay in 1946 Ram adopted the name Ram Chandra to continue his interest in the sideshow business, all the while gathering knowledge from direct observation, solid country advice and reputable authorities (particularly zoo-keepers/reptile handlers and naturalists) on snakes.

The show environment undoubtedly honed his skills in public communication and human behaviour.

He is the man who played a vital role in helping the Commonwealth Serum Laboratory develop an antivenene for the usually fatal taipan snake bite.

Areas of Queensland had been hit by a mysterious spate of snake bite deaths which baffled members of the medical profession.

Victims had been bitten by "a brown snake" yet failed to respond to the common treatment. Ram was intrigued and set out to solve the puzzle.

He identified the snake as the taipan and convinced people that the snake could be found in the populated areas of North and Central Queensland and not just in the rugged Cape York Peninsula region.

Three weeks after distribution of the serum which Ram had helped develop my milking the venom from the taipan, the antivenene saved the life of a Cairns schoolboy, Bruce Springer.

In 1955, Bruce had been bitten by the taipan while playing in the schoolground. Since then, 73 lives have been saved by the taipan antivenene.

In 1956, while demonstrating to a conference of senior ambulance officers in the Pit of Death, Ram was bitten repeatedly by a taipan.

Ram's own life was saved by the antivenene which subsequently became available thanks to his earlier work of milking the taipan for its venom and sending it to the Commonwealth Serum Laboratory in Melbourne, only 12 months earlier.

He has given lectures on the recognition of venomous and non-venomous snakes and the life-saving treatment of snake bites to hundreds in the medical profession - and to many, many school children and adults.

Over the years he raised over $80,000 for Queensland Ambulance, about $9000 for the Queensland Cancer Fund and many thousands of dollars for Lions clubs, Rotary, Apex and local charities.

Ram has fought back from paralysis which struck him from the waist down to continue giving lectures and demonstrations.

In 1975, he was awarded the British Empire Medal. He was named the Pioneer Shire Citizen of the Year in 1982 and the Order of the Outback in 1985.

Ram Chandra was indeed a special breed of man.

Originally published as Ram Chandra risked life for research