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Turtles thrive along the coast in Maharashtra
The Olive Ridley turtles of the Konkan coast in Maharashtra may not be as famous as their compatriots in Orissa's seashore but they have been growing multifold during the last six years.
- By Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent
- Published: 23:54 March 20, 2008
Mumbai: The Olive Ridley turtles of the Konkan coast in Maharashtra may not be as famous as their compatriots in Orissa's seashore but they have been growing multifold during the last six years.
Thanks to a local non-governmental organisation, Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra (SNM) or Friends of Nature (in the Sahyadri range of mountains), which has been protecting marine turtle nests, turtles have grown in numbers. The SNM's efforts from 2002 to 2007 brought impressive results - from near none to 9,000 hatchlings being released into the Arabian Sea from 214 nests.
And yet again this year, the hatchling season has been successful with more than 200 turtles emerging out of their shells from Velas, a small village on the banks of Savitri River in Ratnagiri district, on March 16 and 17. Velas, where the Turtle Festival just concluded, is just one of the 20 villages on the Ratnagiri coast where local people along with SNM have been protecting turtle nests.
The Turtle Festival is the high point of conservationists where villagers gather at dawn on the beach to watch the wondrous march of hatchlings into their deep marine home.
"Before we started our work, not a single chick survived since local people regularly poached or jackals in the area predated all the nests on the beach," Vijay Mahabal of SNM, Velas, Ratnagiri district, told Gulf News. Other major threats to the turtle are from trawlers, fishing nets and developmental work.
"Constant awareness programmes, film and slide shows have considerably helped in making local people conscious of conservation," he said.
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