Passionate about plants and animals, Rajakupal Govindan, a former bank manager, lives with 50 birds and grows orchids as a hobby. The rest of his time is spent saving cats and dogs. He is also the go-to man to care for any animals, from cobras to birds and bees. He gets between 5 and 15 calls about animals in distress every month.
It all began when a young 8-year old Rajakupal watched his father save a spotted baby dove near their house. His compassion for animals has been with him since then. Soon enough, he began taking care of his own bird – a mynah. Being enterprising and talented in woodwork, he raised money to buy tools to make cages and nests for the birds.
“God gave us hands and legs to help” is Rajakupal’s motto, and he used to take his staff from his time as a bank manager to help out the underprivileged as well. “Whoever comes to me for help, I respond.”
One of his memorable rescue stories was when he was awakened at 2 AM to help a dog that had been knocked down by a hit-and-run drunk driver. He treated the white mongrel’s wound with turmeric on the spot. He later brought the dog to Dr. Edwin Singam, a fellow animal rescuer and an IMSHA winner, who took care of the dog at his clinic for a whole month until it recovered.
Rajakupal also receives calls to catch snakes. Once, he got a call from a school in Perling who had a 10-feet long python on its premises, sending panic amongst students and teachers. Rajakupal arrived and instructed another man to help him hold the snake down, but the man took off instead. “Pythons are full of muscles,” Rajakupal shared, “and it kills by coiling itself around its prey, suffocating it.” Luckily for Rajakupal, his childhood growing up near the jungle taught him a trick or two about weakening the animal. The python was caught and released back into the wild.
Rajakupal feels honoured to have received the Iskandar Malaysia Social Hero Awards (IMSHA). A former president of the Rotary Club, member of Malaysian Nature Society, Secretary of SPCA and in a Temple Management, he believes time is in his control and plans and prioritises his activities to ensure everything is done to the tee.
He has no intention to retire. To him, retirement is just a phase in life, doing what you love and loving what you do. People around him support his work, and even his neighbours find the singing of his birds to be music to their ears.
