Not too long ago, eggs of the endangered Olive Ridley turtles, were toys in the hands of children. Now, school children are among the key advocates in coastal community groups trying to save hatchlings of the sea turtles, whose numbers had been dwindling fast.
For the change of community’s attitude, Dr Supraja Dharini, founder of Tree Foundation, has received an associate award of the Whitley Award (Green Oscar) that carries 10,000 pounds for conservation of Olive Ridleys and dolphins along the Kancheepuram coast.
Dharini might have been the last to get into the conservation of the turtles, often referred to as ambassadors of the ocean. It was the renowned herpetologist Romulus Whitaker who initiated the nation’s first sea turtle conservation in the city’s coast way back in 1970s.
Dharini set up the Trust for Environment Education (TREE) foundation in 2002 to spread awareness and importance of sea turtles among school children, youth, SHGs and trawler owners. A volunteer group of young fishermen has been formed to protect, relocate eggs and release hatchlings into the sea as turtles are most vulnerable when
they first hatch, says S Vimal Raj, a trustee of the Foundation.
The number of nests has risen from 27 to 90 in the last six years with the number of hatchlings going up to 8,821 from 2,222. Boys who used turtle eggs as their play things are now carefully relocating them to enclosures, protecting them until they hatch and carefully delivering each one of the babies to safety at the ocean’s edge,
giving the turtles a chance for survival.
“The Olive Ridley turtle population is going down. A ban on trawlers and lights on beaches during the next mating season (Jan-April) could help turtle conservation,” says Vimal.
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