Nishanth R, a member of Student’s Sea Turtle Conservation Network (SSTCN), said their team had found and relocated 40 nests over the last two days. “We have got some good numbers. SSTCN and the Forest Department together have more than a hundred nests,” he said.
The group also had an endearing experience, as they helped a mother Ridley with three flippers dig a deeper hole to lay the eggs. “We get two or three injured turtles every year. This time, we saw a turtle who was missing her right hind flipper. She was finding it hard to dig a hole. After two and a half hours, we started helping the turtle, using our hands as the missing flipper. Then, she started nesting,” said Nishanth.
An official from the Forest Department said, “After a lull, the nesting season has picked up and we found many nests. A turtle lays 100-150 eggs at a time. We relocate this to our hatcheries, until they hatch.”
In the Neelankarai to Alambarai stretch, volunteers from the Tree Foundation India found 26 nests on the night of February 13. Dr Supraja Dharini, chairperson of Tree Foundation India, said, “We have recorded more than 42 nests on the night of February 12 in our project area. The Neelankarai beach was cleaned February 4 and 7, after the oil spill reached our area, with the help of 264 Tree Foundation members, ICG officers and volunteers. A total of seven tonnes of the tar balls with sand was removed and sent to the KPL remediation site.”
Apart from the oil spill, Dr Dharini added that there are other, and more serious, threats faced by our oceans each day. “Sewage run-off, plastic pollution, chemical dumping, fertilisers and a host of other threats continue to bombard the oceans each day, not just locally but all over the world. At Tree Foundation, our Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre has over the last few years received many endangered sea turtles suffering from impaction (a blockage in the digestive tract),” concluded the expert.