mid-day's 39th anniversary: Crouching Sanap, jumping spider

While he can't shoot webs from his wrist, he is the friendly neighbourhood superhero to Aarey's spiders

Rajesh Sanap, 30
Environmental researcher

Would you rather spend an afternoon with tigers or spiders? That's not a tough question for most people. Researcher Rajesh Sanap, too, has his answer ready: "Spiders, of course."

There's a reason they call him the Spiderman of Mumbai. For the last 10 years, the environmental researcher and naturalist has spent nearly every afternoon combing the forest of Aarey Milk Colony, Goregaon, for arachnids. "Yes, I've heard about the nickname," he smiles, "but I never had an interest in superheroes."

His real superpower, though, is unearthing new species. Sanap has discovered 23 new species of spiders, scorpions, geckos, and even a snake. It's not something his family imagined he'd do. "We are a family of policemen, and everyone thought I was going to be one too. But early on, I decided that wasn't for me. I loved nature more," he says.

While Sanap is currently also leading a camera-trapping exercise to study leopards in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, spiders have been his first love, ever since he stumbled on a tarantula in 2007. "I was walking in the forest when I saw an unusual clump of mud and twigs. I lifted it and saw a full-fledged tunnel. There was a tarantula staring back at me from inside," Sanap recalls.

The critter he had spotted was a robust trapdoor tarantula of the Haploclastus validus species, rediscovered in Aarey after 110 years. Since then, he has discovered several entirely new species, including a kind of jumping spider that he is now writing a paper on. "It is the first time in India that a paper will cover the complete life cycle and behaviour of both males and females in the species," he says.

If there's one thing he hates about the job, though, it's how long it takes to spot a single species. "I spent two years studying the jumping spider. This work requires patience, and you must put in as much time as it takes."

But Sanap has an idea to make a faster going of it. "I'm trying to get MSc and BSc students to pitch in. That way, they too can find new species and write their own research papers."

Will this be his legacy? "I don't know. I just hope to bring more focus to Aarey's wildlife. They've lived here for thousands of years, and we want to wipe them out in one go in the name of development."

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