This happened on the 9th of July, 2019. We were harvesting mangoes in the morning. This was in the mango orchard which is opposite to the vegetable garden. This orchard is to your left as you head towards the gangamma temple. It was around 11:45 am and, our people were collecting the harvested mangoes and winding up for the lunch break at 12:00 noon.
I was standing there under the tree when our supervisor Hemanth pointed at something to me that was moving under the tree. I looked and was surprised to see a juvenile monitor lizard. By then, all our workers had left for lunch. I was amazed at his bold behaviour. Usually there is an innate sense of fear of the humans instilled in all wild animals, but, this guy was exceptional in his boldness. I watched him for a while, pulled out my (not-so-smart) smart phone and started filming him. He was looking for grubs (insects) under the mango tree, amidst the termite infested twigs and dry leaves. His forked tongue was constantly moving in and out as he picked up juicy grubs and ate them, totally unmindful of my close presence. He would look at me off and on, pause, and continue foraging for his food. I took my phone as close as 2 feet from him and he did not seem to bother.
This very unusual absence of fear for the humans worried me, because, he could easily be killed and eaten. The villagers here have this belief that eating the lizard’s meat gives immense physical strength. The fat/oil extracted from the meat is also believed to have medicinal properties. One of them claimed that, after eating the monitor’s meat, if you tie a sturdy string around your biceps and flex, the string just shatters to pieces.
I continued filming him for more than 5 minutes. He was totally at ease with my presence and went about his business of grub hunting. Once, he pulled out a grub from the leaf litter, held it in his mouth, paused, cocked his head at an angle and looked at me for almost a minute before swallowing the grub. Now, I too started feeling hungry and had to take leave of him.
I wished this beautiful fellow good luck and prayed that the fear for humans should be granted to him. I hope he is still around and doing well.
Santosh from RV Estate