Keeping pace with turtles!

We drove down a narrow, dusty path that leads to the Panaiyur beach. Once we alighted from the car, darkness enveloped us and I wasn’t too sure if I really wanted to do this. There was an uneasy calm and the only sound was the lashing of waves against the shore. Being a sucker for horror movies, I half expected to see a lady in white strolling around.

Earlier, it had taken an hour’s drive to reach Dr. Supraja Dharini’s house. She is the founder and Chairperson of the Tree Foundation, an NGO which works in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu Wildlife Department for the protection of sea turtles and their hatchlings. Supraja is my guide for the evening and we were joined by a few volunteers from the Tree Foundation and a couple of other turtle enthusiasts. Soon we set out on our turtle walk adventure.

Place of action

On reaching the beach, we first headed to the hatchery where turtle eggs are kept in incubation in a protected environment. A grid is made with ropes and the squares with numbers contain the turtle eggs. “The incubation period is usually 48 to 55 days. The emerging temperature for the male hatchling is 25 to 30 degrees while for the female it is 31 to 36 degrees,” explained Supraja. A few hatchlings had emerged that morning and a few more were expected to hatch that night. We waited for a while for the hatchlings to arrive but, in vain. We then started walking along the shore on our quest to see turtles laying eggs. On second thoughts the place wasn’t as spooky as it had seemed earlier, it was actually quite romantic. The ink blue sea with sporadic flashes of light from ships looked magnificent. The wind blew by whispering its little secrets into my ears.

At first, all we could see were crabs scuttling about. Impatient, I aimlessly drew figures on the sand. Every time I drew a line something blue would glow in the sand. “Those are bio-luminescent organisms,” said Arivazhagan, one of the volunteers. “Some living organisms release light as a result of chemical reaction during which the chemical light is converted to light energy,” he explained seeing the blank look on our faces. All of us then enthusiastically started drawing on the wet sand, highly amused by the blue radium-like luminescence. Supraja put one of them on my hand and it glowed like a Swarovski tattoo. What joy!

Meanwhile, a thorny spine ball washed ashore caught our attention. I was about to touch it when a volunteer interrupted, “Don’t, it is a dead porcupine puffer fish and its spines are poisonous.” We then stumbled upon two dead eels but no turtles. I began to give up hope and pestered the others to walk back but they seemed interested to walk further. I had no other option but to tag along. On interacting a little more with Supraja I learnt that Olive Ridley turtles always go back and lay eggs on the coast where they were born. “It is almost like a girl or woman going back to her maternal village for a safe child birth. This is known as Natal nesting,” she informed.

Worth the walk

Another fifteen minutes of walking and then we saw it. There it was throwing out sand with its flippers, putting in as much strength as possible. It was an Olive Ridley making its nest to lay eggs. Soon after the nest was made, the laying process started. One after the other she laid sparkling white eggs into her pot shaped nest. We were asked to stay still and remain silent. While she elegantly sat there like a prima donna, we huddled around, letting our eyes do all the talking as we excitedly looked at each other. Soon it was time to leave, we waved good bye to the turtle, which gave us a lazy look, as we walked in front of her, and continued doing what she was doing with great panache.

I got into the car, tired and sleepy but only too happy to have witnessed something which I would otherwise have seen only on Discovery channel.

credits: The Hindu Metro Plus.

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2008/03/12/stories/2008031250130100.htm

Author: Priyadarshini Paitandy, The Hindu
To join the walk contact Tree foundation http://www.treefoundationindia.org/