CHENNAI:Curious little eyes looked up at me from a blue tub of water. As I tip-toed to get a better glance at the rescued Olive Ridley Turtle at the Tree Foundation office, I noticed that something was different about the turtle — the left flippers (front and back) were missing. Each of the eight rescued species of sea turtle, were injured — missing flippers — making it incapable to swim.
The Tree Foundation was founded in 2002 by Supraja Dharini, a conservationist and woman behind the ‘Save Turtles Mission’. Along with the Sea Turtle Protection Force (STPF), a group of fishermen living along the coast, she has been actively protecting, conserving and spreading the importance of protecting the sea turtle.
After screening a documentary about the different kinds of sea turtles and the threats they face while in sea because of fishing and on shore, garbage and plastics strewn over, there was a talk about the same. The members of the foundation, which also has a few rescued fresh water turtles, explained how to differentiate between the two. While fresh water turtles have feet-like parts with nail and can put their head back into their shells, the sea turtles cannot, and they have flippers.
From January to May every year, the Olive Ridley Turtles swim to the shore to lay eggs and go back into the waters. The turtles, which may lay 100-150 eggs, may nest around three-four times during the season. TA Pughazharasan, conservationist, said, “When I was younger, I did not know about the sea turtles. So I would dig out their eggs, use it as a ball to play cricket. It has a very soft shell, unlike other eggs and so bounces twice off the ground.”
Next, we headed to the Neelankarai beach where we saw a fences of ropes tied on the ground, to form small boxes. Every alternate box was covered with a basket. Under each of these baskets lay 200 plus possible hatchlings, tiny eggs, dug into the ground. Supraja explained that the sex of the turtles could be determined by the temperature and humidity inside the nest. “If the temperature is 20-250C, then there are more male turtles and if it’s from 30-350C then there are more female turtles.”
As soon as the baskets were lifted, the little turtles ran towards the sand. Since most participants had their flash lights on, the little ones tried to run towards the light. Supraja and Pughazharasan quickly picked them up and put them into two baskets. They were all ready to be released into the sea, one by one. “When the female sea turtles become adults, they return to the same beach where they were born. They lay their eggs there,” explained Supraja.
The 44 hatchlings were the second batch to be released this year. There are more unhatched eggs down the sand and will be released when the time comes. Although they were carefully released into the sea, the officials explained that not all will survive. Often becoming prey for the larger marine life, out of every 1,000 hatchlings, only one survives and matures into an adult.
DID YOU KNOW?
● Garbage strewn around the beach can choke the turtles
● Bright lights can confuse and lure them to the roads, where they may get crushed under vehicles
● Sea turtles feed on algae present on the rock and coral formations
● It’s a superstition that eating turtle meat and drinking its blood can cure ailments