The establishment is located on a 8.5 acres (3.4 ha) site covered by coastal sand forests, along the coast of Bay of Bengal.

The trust also runs three field stations at South Andaman, Agumbe in Karnataka, and the Chambal valley in Uttar Pradesh as well as a snake venom extraction centre.

The plan included a separate gharial exhibit, entry plaza with a café, parking areas and an interpretation centre that houses small crocodiles, snakes, turtles and lizards on the upper level and underwater viewing of the largest saltwater crocodile exhibit in the park, on the lower level.

[22] In 2018, Whitaker was presented with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award by the Government of India.

[26] The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust was established in 1976 which runs a reptile zoo and herpetology research station.

[27][28] The Crocodile Bank is situated on a 8.5 acres (3.4 ha) stretch of land, located about 40 km (25 mi) south of Chennai on the East Coast Road at Vadanemmeli near Thiruvidandhai, along the Bay of Bengal.

The bank has served as a regional source of status information for the World Conservation Monitoring Centre and has hosted numerous international meetings of the IUCN Specialist Groups dealing with reptiles.

[33] Research in the field of herpetology within the bank has resulted in over 600 scientific publications, books, reports, newspaper and magazine articles and films.

[35] In the early 1980s, Edward Moll of Eastern Illinois University did a study on turtles in India based out of the bank.

The project was done in association with Romulus Whitaker and Harry Andrews and focused on reptile reproduction, egg incubation, and temperature-dependent sex determination.

The Agumbe research centre aids in study of venomous snakes and other organisms in the Western Ghats.

[42][43] The bank serves as a consultant on reptile management and conservation issues to multiple organisations and countries.

Unique identification numbers are assigned to individual animals with maintenance of health and medical records.

As no methods have been evolved to sterilize the crocodiles, the increasing numbers resulted in nearly one thousand animals being relocated to Gujarat in 2022.

[57][58] The trust has been involved in engaging local community and education for the conservation of olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea).

[71][72][73] The park is divided into four areas corresponding to various geographies namely, Asia, Americas, Amazon and Africa, with thematic landscaping and signage.

The trust gets about one-third of revenues from ticketing at the zoo with other income coming through research grants (23%), donations (12%), educational programmes (11%) among others.

[84] Post opening of the park after the Covid-induced lockdown, about 0.15 million visitors were recorded from September 2021 to March 2022 with an average monthly footfall of 21,400.