‘Keep beaches clean to preserve Olive Ridleys’

Chennai

What are the challenges in preservation of turtles?
Sea turtles are the link between land and sea. There is a lot of awareness being created in this direction, yet turtles are dying. This is largely due to pollution and change in climatic conditions. We often find plastics in the stomach of the dead turtles. After laying the eggs, hungry mother turtles eat trash, suffocate and die.

How can everyone contribute to the preservation?  
Now many fishermen are able to alert turtle conservationists, if the turtles are in danger. All of us can play a small role by ensuring that we keep our beaches clean. We must also see that the eggs laid by turtles are kept safe till they hatch and the baby turtles have to be released in the sea.

Tell us a little about Save a Turtle’s activities?
We are conducting activities meant for a wide age group.  ‘The Ridley Run’ is for men, women and children, art contests are for school students and sand sculpting contest for college students. Apart from these, we have night walks at various locations along with wildlife forest department from January to March.