Conserving baby steps in the Sands…
The Velas Turtle Festival has become quite popular now. But there’s a long lesser known history about turtle conservation in Maharashtra. Velas is a quiet little hamlet in the Ratnagiri district with a beautiful coastline and cool climate. It is best known today for its annual turtle festival that attracts thousands of tourists. The village also has interesting rock formations that are created as a result of metamorphosis of the volcanic basalt rock of the Deccan Trap. I was lucky to discover crystals , igneous and other beautifully coloured rocks emerging out of a huge black volcanic stone – all naturally formed due to millions of years of erosion. The iron rich soils have created huge cultivation of cashews and coconuts and almost every household has a spacious garden. It is also noted as a birthplace of Nana Phadnis who was sachiva- a secretary in Peshawai in Pune.
An organization called “ Sahyadri Nisargamitra” , operational since 1992 has been working for conservation of sea eagles , nature conservation among other roles. Velas had been a nesting home of turtles since many years but no active steps were taken as such to conserve them . During my visit last year , the local guide told us that some people even consumed the baby turtles in the surrounding areas which led to a population decline. Therefore the organisation decided to run a conservation program . They contacted other organisations across the country who had previous experience of working with turtles and the actual project took off in 2003. In early days their teams used to patrol the beach areas at night , waiting for mother turtles who used to come for laying eggs. The morning sessions included public awareness campaigns and volunteers had a tough time balancing all this with their regular jobs. Once they discovered a turtle nest , a villager would be appointed as an observer for 6 months. In this way in the 1st year itself they were able to protect around 2734 baby turtles who were successfully released in the sea. The public enthusiasm was so much that when the 1st egg hatched , the entire village was present to witness the occasion. Village elders informed them that they had been consuming these eggs since their childhood but this was the 1st time ever they had seen those little baby steps imprinted on the sands. Now they quit their old habits and joined in the conservation program. Slowly the pace of the project spread to other villages and covered almost the entire 720 KM of coastline of Maharashtra.
Funds started pouring in as the news of their success spread . In 2006 they decided to showcase the entire process to their donors – and thus started the Velas Turtle Festival. Till that the time the locals had never ever imagined that their small village would become a big tourist attraction. Once they realised the economics behind it and the ensuing benefits that they would have people volunteered to create homestays and also protect the turtles. Sahyadri Nisargamitra now started large scale training programs , including advertising the homestays , website management and tourist contacts. As their scope widened , they made some rules and regulations for the “ turtle festival”. The 1st rule was to spend 10% of the tourism revenue for conservation activities and to have uniform rates for all homestays. As the scale of the project increased it became an economically more viable model. Tourists also were made more aware about the program to prevent any inconvenience to the turtles. The local forest department also jumped in to help them and a trained batch of volunteers was created. The organisation , now convinced about the viability of the project now decided to hand-over the entire responsibility to the locals and the forest department – which they have been successfully managing since 2014. Sahyadri Nisargamitra is still operational in the area as per the requirements , handling many other projects simultaneously.
The Velas Turtle Festival is a rare and beautiful example of a targeted state level conservation program wholly based on public participation and volunteering. We need more such ventures to sustain the global climatic changes and to make this planet a more beautiful place to live in.