Musings of a Polyglot Bibliophile: Turtle Walks

"My Experience in conservation, and environmental activism includes turtle walks"

"What?"

This was the reaction, I most often received when I told professors and employers about my experiences in environmental stewardship. My school would organize nights walk, for which we would, walk about 10 miles along the coast in Madras (Chennai), during the Olive Ridley nesting season. This was usually during November to January. Why would we do this? The Olive Ridleys were attacked on the beaches when they would come up to nest. The nesting process (digging the hole, laying the eggs, covering it up, could take a while). Each nest could hold up to 200 eggs. Sometimes, stray dogs, poachers would come and hurt the turtle, or destroy the eggs. Our job would be to protect the turtle, and relocate the nest after the mother made it back to see. This relocation process was done very precisely (distance from shore, depth of hole, width of hole, etc). In the 90's in India the Olive Ridley was considered an endangered species. Now when I google "Olive Ridley", the facts seem to have changed; according to NOAA they are plentiful. What I knew then no longer stands? Research? I am not sure, however perhaps our efforts then are reflected on their now "plentiful" status.

There is nothing more lovely than walking on a beach all night trying to save turtles. Breeze, the moon, the ocean, changing of tides, and creatures of the sea that only come out at night. Stories would come to mind; how the ocean requires a human sacrifice of one human a day. I wondered who it would be that night, maybe a poacher.

These were the days when some of the major organization in conservation of wildlife seemed so great and good, but as we grow, we do get jaded by the truths. However the truths about the turtle walks and other efforts to help save our planet, hasn't be tarnished. I mean honest efforts, the ones where people don't go seeking money by overpriced cards, or something of the sort. I'm glad the Olive Ridley is still around, now let's help the tigers, although dangerous, the Florida Panther, the bald eagles (their numbers are on the rise)... It is wishful thinking, that even with all the problems in the world right now, someone (me) is still worried about animals, but they do, eventually, play a large role in our circle, although we might never see it until we feel it.

My friend Adhith Swaminathan took the following pictures. This is some information from him:

"I work as a research assistant on a leatherback project in the andaman and nicobar islands. We basically stay in an island called little andaman and camp for like 5 months recording data with regard to turtle nesting etc..track them using satellite trackers to get an idea where they go after nesting..post nesting migratory route.
anyway...
all the sea turtles including olive ridley are still endangered. Only reason you see so much in one place is cause they practice a phenomenon called arribada..i.e mass nesting / synchronized nesting. SO this basically happens only in 3 places in Orissa, India and i was fortunate enough to work in one of the beaches