As our responsibility increased to include two stretches both covering over 7 Kms each, we tried to employ people as we were afraid the load of covering both stretches would be too much for our volunteers.

Although we tried for over a month, we were unable to get anyone responsible or reliable. As a result the job had to be undertaken wholly by volunteers.

It was a very successful nesting season with 85 nests relocated into the Besant Nagar hatchery and 80 nests into the Marina hatchery. Intense patrolling by the volunteers ensured that nests were not left undetected on the beach as this would surely mean disorientation for the emerging hatchlings due to lights, or risk of them being caught by dogs or crabs.

This involved monitoring the two hatcheries through the day as well as late nights and early mornings. We managed to release a total of 14, 238 hatchlings which is the highest number in many years.

Students from schools, and colleges as well as families, joined our walks every weekend. In the evenings, children too young to join night walks came regularly to the hatchery and participated with great excitement in the hatchling release.

Overall it was an extremely successful season and we felt all the hard work and enthusiasm that went in, really paid off.

Read all about it and more in this article:

http://iotn.org/iotn14_8.html

Government orders mast lights to be switched off!

For more information visit:

http://iotn.org/iotn14_6.html

The follow up action taken by the Government was then outlined in Sanctuary Asia’s October 2008 issue. The article can be accessed using the following link.

http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1338:turtles-and-casuarina-&catid=132:campaigns-archive

To view the April 2008 article, the following link can be used.

http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=491:world-bank-vs-sea-turtles-trauma-in-tamil-nadu&catid=113:campaigns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjyM9lAwmhU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCzFGtYbm9U

Satan and Sin, two jet black dogs with yellow eyes, fat and jolly, full of energy, meet us turtle walkers on most nights and walk with us till the hatchery. In a world of relationships based on give and take, this beautiful friendship is based on nothing material. They expect nothing from us, and most of the time we have nothing to give, except some warm hugs and of course, our company. And what’s most amazing, is that we aren’t the same people walking everyday. Almost everyday, a different pair of SSTCN members walks. Satan and Sin bear the same good cheer, and it is beautifully unconditional.

They often come by themselves and and sometimes bring other friends along. They play the entire way, often taking quick baths in the sea. These must be the cleanest dogs, with a bath every hour! Incidentally, they never harm the turtles, or the turtle eggs. They sleep with us in the hatchery and walk with us up till the bus stop. After putting us into the bus, they walk back to their daytime area.

Those of you who understand dogs will understand that by walking 5 kilometres with us, they cross hundreds of other dog territories, but our friends have never confronted any other dogs, and whenever confronted, have always maintained a dignified prescence.

This brings us to Inji, our former president, as we’d like to think of him. Inji used to walk with us everyday, unfailingly, from Besant Nagar to Neelankarai. We named him after Niranjan, a passionate turtle walker who died in the Himalayas. Inji walked with us from January to March, and then as the turtle nesting season drew to a close and it was time for us to go directly to the hatchery to release hatchlings, he would walk alone all the way. That was truly fascinating for a lone dog to do; walk all the way from Besant Nagar to Neelankarai, crossing all the kuppams (fishing villages) with their territorial dogs.

Then, by mid-April, Inji decided that he would shift base, and moved to the hatchery. This brought about a complete change in his character. He was, till then, a pig-nosed, dreamy, friendly dog but once he found a home, he turned territorial and would guard it fiercely. We changed his name to Inji Pratap Singh and as his power and domination grew, Thakur Inji Pratap Singh!

Unfortunately, the season got over and it was time to pull down the hatchery. After that, Inji became really upset and bad tempered, and on one occasion bit a boy from the kuppam who teased him. We paid for the boy’s treatment, but from that day on, our friend was a marked dog. We tried bringing him to Besant Nagar with us, but he would always run back. We made arrangements for him to be fed, and often went to check up on him, but one day he just disappeared. In a world of spite, one can definitely imagine what must have happened. After this, we posthumously made Inji the President of SSTCN.

It was written by Ashish Kothari, head of Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group which is a non profit organization that works on environmental education, research, campaigns, and direct action. The organization is based in Delhi and Pune, and is currently working to prevent the construction of the Dhamra Port in Orissa, as if built, the port would completely destroy the turtle nesting beaches of Orissa.

To view the article, click on the following link:

http://www.hindu.com/yw/2008/04/04/stories/2008040450520200.htm

Endangered sea turtles such as the Olive Ridley have inspired campaigns to save the seas, sandy beaches, and dunes. To save turtles is to save an entire ecosystem. But this protected mascot species faces a rising threat from avoidable coastal development, the planting of exotic trees, and the illumination of beachfront dwellings. The building of coastal structures, including groynes and walls, blocks off access and exacerbates erosion; the planting of casuarina trees preve nts nesting; and lights along the coast confuse turtle hatchlings, fatally attracting them inland. Unless these threats are addressed quickly and scientifically, the Olive Ridley may lose its nesting habitats in the Indian subcontinent and suffer a sharp decline. For many years now, Olive Ridley deaths traceable to human interference have been high. Despite high levels of awareness, recent reports speak of a continuing tragedy. Indian Institute of Science ecologists fear that about 10,000 turtles die annually in Orissa, where they nest en masse. Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh provide low or medium density habitats but they are vital to the health of the species.

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : Saving the Olive Ridley

Contact us at sstcnchennai@gmail.com to find out how you can help us fight to conserve the Olive Ridley in Chennai.

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Tags: OliveRidley, Chennai, SSTCN

The death of hundreds of Olive Ridley turtles along the Paravada coast in December 2007 had occurred due to failure of the trawlers to install the mandatory turtle excluder device. Lab tests conducted at Andhra University and Veterinary Biological Research Institute, Hyderabad ruled out the largescale death of the endangered species due to consumption of toxic contents discharged by industries located nearby or on account of rise in the seawater temperature.“We didn’t find any abnormal pollution levels. The washing ashore of carcasses was not a localised phenomena as dead turtles were found all along the coast up to Srikakulam during the year-end – the breeding season,” P.J. Vijaykar, Divisional Forest Officer told The Hindu on Wednesday.

The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Visakhapatnam News : Olive Ridley death riddle solved

Andhra Pradesh was supposed to be a success story with the TEDs. This from an article by Kartik Shanker, one of SSTCN’s founding members…

In India, the parallel cases of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh demonstrate how a TED programme should not (and should) be implemented. In Orissa, the polarization between the fishing community and conservationists has prevented the introduction of TEDs, while in Andhra Pradesh, TEDs were introduced by the state Fisheries Department with appropriate demonstration and training programmes (see Shanker and Pilcher, 2003).

So, this occurrence in Andhra Pradesh is quite disheartening and speaks to the large gaps that lie between legislation, policy and implementation in India.

Cross Posted at The Olive Ridley Crawl

Tags: OliveRidley, Sea Turtles, SSTCN