Chennnai hatches success story of Olive Ridleys

CHENNAI: S Vinod, a manager in Aditya Birla Money, sleeps only four nights a week for four months—between January and April when Olive Ridley turtles come to Chennai for breeding. He stays awake three nights walking along a 7-km stretch on the Chennai coast looking for turtle nests and relocating them to a safer location. For him and many other Chennaiites, saving endangered species doesn’t require activist instincts or a hefty bank balance. Many middle-class Chennaiites with regular jobs, nine-to-five schedules and families with kids are contributing in their own way to protecting the Olive Ridley turtle, categorised as highly endangered under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

Facilitated by residents’ conservationist efforts, Olive Ridleys have been coming every year to the city’s beaches during the breeding season. This year, too, they have come to Chennai—25% more than last year. In the past, though the numbers have shown a general decline, this year’s growth has given activists reason to cheer.
“Turtles continue to come to Chennai despite trawlers and artificial lights along the coast that could deter them. They have stopped going to nearby coastal towns such as Tarangambadi where there is no conservation activity,” says Akila Balu, coordinator for Students Sea Turtle Conservation Network (SSTCN)—an informal group of volunteers to conserve Olive Ridleys that come to Chennai to nest.

Turtle conservation measures adopted in Chennai are well proven. Volunteers walk along the coast looking for turtle nests. The general location is found by following the tracks these Olive Ridleys leave while coming on the shore. The volunteers then ‘poke’ the sand using a probe. The spot where the probe sinks into the sand with ease is where the nest is located. Once located, the exact measurement is taken.

Chennai’s “regular” folks such as Vinod say they have seen their lives changing as they get more involved in saving the turtle. Vinod has stopped drinking tea or coffee. He says he has become a people’s person, genuinely enjoying the company of people who are unlike him. “Turtle preservation is a way of contributing to my locality. This year, more than the seven thousand hatchlings we released from the Marina stretch, the highlight was the interaction with local fishermen. They are the ultimate saviours of these turtles,” he says.

Old time members of SSTCN say that year 2004 saw an explosion of sorts in terms of the number of people joining the conservation effort. “We regularly got media coverage and with the booming of Information Technology, the number of both weekday and weekend walkers increased dramatically,” says Adhith Swaminathan, one of the trustee members, SSTCN.

For P Shiva Kumar, a project manager from Mphasis, turtle walks gives him a break from the monotonous system he is part of. “These walks are a way to connect to nature and meet a lot of interesting people,” he says.