News
The transformation of poachers into sea turtle protectors!
June 27, 2007, 12:0AM MT
By Sharon St. Joan
Visakha SPCA's Sea Turtle Project
Visakha SPCA's Sea Turtle Project
By Pradeep Kumar Nath, President and Founder of Visakha SPCA
All the Olive Ridley sea turtles, if they needed treatment were treated on the beach and released. They were never brought to the shelter, as it is not possible and would not be good for the sea turtles.
The kind of distress that a sea turtle experiences consists of her being exhausted after laying her eggs and being unable to make her way back to the sea. This is the major problem that we have witnessed so far.
I am giving a general view of our sea turtle campaign since it first began in 1996 - 1997. At that time I was able to gather together enough courage to go out in the middle of the night alone to save them, and I was even more determined to go after learning of their plight at the hands of the predators, who are largely humans.
Until today there has been no one else, nor any volunteer, who has come forward to walk down the lonely beach in the middle of the night due to obvious reasons (it is not safe). I try to do this out of sheer caring about the turtles, in order to stop any poaching. But of late these visits of mine are centered during the time she would come to lay eggs, which I'm able to calculate according to the high tides during which time there are many more turtles coming in. This could be anytime between 8PM until 5AM.
Earlier my lone patrols were almost daily throughout the season because of the many poachings that used to take place. But today I'm happy to say that my times on the beach are more for recording the sea turtles nestings, as there are no more poachers.
My quest to save the sea turtles arose after witnessing their gross
slaughterings on the beaches, for only a few rupees. They were being slaughtered for many purposes. Human mothers who had just delivered babies, and the old and the weak, consume turtles as they feel that the meat is good for rejuvenating them. Also I would see eggs and baby turtles being sold in the market places. The children would be playing with the baby turtles until they died. The shells of the sea turtle were being used as utensils.
At the beginning I would draw repeated protests and even physical
abuse from the traditional fishermen when I would not allow them to
poach the mother and father (by net) and their eggs. But I braved on
to meet and visit with their tribal leaders and distribute flyers in local dialects. I drew the best inspiration from using spiritual sentiments . Sea turtles and tortoises are revered here as "KURMA AVATARAM". I started to talk about this to the poachers and the people. This worked very well and brought about remarkable change.
From the third year of my sea turtle campaign, apart from one single case where we filed charges, the poachings were down to nil and the people were helping me by not poaching at all. If they found a sea turtle in the fishing nets they would rub vermillion on him (as a blessing), and, if available, they would put a garland round the neck of the turtle and release him back to the sea, with folded hands. This was the high point of my happiness.
Then came the famous submarine legal case. This case was my
serious campaign against putting submarines on the beach where there were sea turtle nestings. This case got so famous that the sea turtle today is a household name. The legal battle has made the sea turtle more famous.
Today, we receive calls from the anxious public if they happen to
notice a sea turtle nesting, and this is what exactly we need; i.e. the
support of the public, which makes a lot of difference to the
project.
I even was able to turn around the poachers into sea turtle
protectors. Today our main protectors are these people who used to be poachers, but now are people very committed to protecting turtles.
We have since 2004 been using the fishing community as our main base of support to save the turtles. And this was and is
successful in 24 villages so far, and we hope to move on to even more villages.
The obstacles are tourist resorts, sand mining and the many violations of Coastal Regulation Zone. The road is wide open and lengthy and much scope lies ahead to save the turtles.
How you can help
If you wish to donate to help endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles and other animals in India, please go to the International Rescue Fund -- India donation button on the right.
Thank you!
The website of Visakha SPCA is
http://www.visakhaspca.org
Photo: copyrighted by Liz Roy, Wikipedia, with permission / Olive Ridley Sea Turtle