WALK ANSWERING A BLIND FAITH

That night was special for me,not because of the walk I had, but because of a wonderful lesson it taught me. Being crazy on taking photos with my camera, somehow I forgot to take camera that night. Instead of worrying about it, I thought of capturing the scenes within me and describe it vividly. So here it goes..

I was accompanied with two of my friends and we joined along with people from TREE foundation. There were few journalism students too..

All set we went to Nynar Kuppam along East Coast Road. The sea was glittering under full moon light. The walk is organised by TREE foundation which actively works on protecting Sea Turtles. Yes we were heading towards a Turtle Walk!!!. We were also accompanied by some fishermen belonging to Kadal Amai Pathukavalar (KAP) by Tamil Nadu Govt.

In Brief... TREE organisation founder Dharini briefed us about the walk. Sea turtles, an endangered species comes to the coast to lay eggs(nesting) from January to April. There are several threats both for the eggs and the turtles which come to lay them. The eggs get stolen and some eaten by dogs. These sea turtles have flippers which are like paws in tortoise. One of the differences between a tortoise and turtle is that the latter cannot withdraw its head & flippers inside its body. This poses a severe threat when it comes near coast for nesting. They get caught in one type of nets(which is banned!) and die when their flippers get cut.

Our Walk... The belt we covered is around 2 kms. Soon after we covered few 100 meters we found a dead turtle. Dharini mam showed us its damaged flippers & head and told that it might be around 25 years. The turtles which comes to this shore belong to Olive Ridley variety and have a life span of around 100 years. We felt sad to see such a huge creature died entangled in nets. These died turtles will be buried by KAP members.

We continued our walk and saw died crab, octopus etc along the shore on our way. After an hour we completed our stretch and thought of walking our way back.

Chat abt sea turtles... Sea turtles become adults by 15 years and then starts nesting. The most astonishing fact is that the turtles hatched from eggs in a shore comes to the same shore for its nesting.. A research project has been started by placing an antenna on its body to track its travel path. These turtles come to the surface of water every 40 minutes to breathe. The antennas will then provide information to the satellite. It seems the Sethu Samudram project crosses the same path, as the turtles coming to this shore take their way back to sea.. Hence might be another threat to them..

Wow... At some distance, we could then see that a turtle has come for nesting and started digging a hole. A good thing was, once they started digging a hole and lay eggs they wont go back in the middle. Hence our presence dint disturb it. :)

It digged a hole of 19 inch depth and 12 inch wide aesthetically with its flippers. Then it started laying eggs.. These eggs were rubbery & hence dint break when laid one over another. You know how many eggs they lay?? 1,2,3.. 10,20.. hmm. its still more.. 150 eggs!! in a nesting. As it lays eggs, since it stays at shore for a longer time, their eyes started lubricating.. It tooked around 45 mins for it to dig hole & lay eggs. Then it covers the hole with sand and presses it so well that no one can figure out that a hole had been digged there.. It then starts its journey back to sea. Unlike crocodile which stays in water near shore till the eggs hatch, these turtles does not return back to see their eggs. They merely believe that their eggs will be hatched and their small ones will come home to sea.

What next??? Now comes the important part, perhaps answering what for a turtle walk??!! Protecting eggs... The fishermen were skilled and diligently started removing the eggs from the hole and safely placed them in a secure hatchery nearby. These eggs has to be replaced within 4 hours from it been laid., otherwise it will get spoiled. So everyday they walk twice during night and early morning. The temperature each egg experiences determines whether it will become male or female. At the end of the season around May, many eggs will become boiled & get spoiled.

After 48 days they will get hatched, small ones come out and start their journey towards sea...

This was a scintillating experience with full moon light & beach adding to its beauty.. It also threw me 2 thoughts...

1. Blind faith the turtles had that their eggs laid on the shore will be hatched.

2. How do the small ones knew that they have to go towards sea & not towards shore.. perhaps a silly question, but thinking it deeper will let us know, that we dont have answers to many whys??

I too dont know the answer for either of them. But I find happiness in answering its blind faith by protecting their eggs. And the second question taught me a lesson that every species including us are doing what we are ought to do. Nothing more or less to be proud of...