Wide-eyed kids watch as olive ridley hatchlings take first dip

CHENNAI: Glued to the sands of Elliot’s Beach, little Rehaan stood and watched, his eyes full of wonderment, as tiny olive ridley hatchlings flapped around directionless. Guided only by the flashlight from a volunteer’s mobile phone, the hatchlings would stumble on their watery abode eventually.


“Can I stay a little longer?” the sevenyear-old begged his grandmother, turning a little wide-eyed in the process. On Saturday, children like Rehaan had a taste of ridley conservation by the

Broken Bridge

in Adyar, where volunteers of the Students Sea Turtle Conservation Network (SSTCN) were releasing newborn olive ridley hatchlings into the sea.

“Look, there is a huge wave coming in.

Those two turtles will disappear now,” remarked *Nisha, before a query popped up in her head. “Do they move faster in the sea?”

Allowing children to get up-close and personal with the turtles would help them understand the importance of wildlife conservation process, said John Machan, an SSTCN volunteer. His expressive face notwithstanding, Machan’s knack of answering the queries in an animated manner pulled in all types of audience.

One of the common queries that the volunteers get asked by children is, “Can I touch them?” “It is a protected species. So, touching the hatchling is not permitted,” said Nishanth Ravi, another SSTCN volunteer. Machan puts it mildly for the children to understand. “The turtles have a very soft almost leathery back when they are young. The shell becomes hard as they grow,” he explained. Such efforts generate considerable interest in children about olive ridley conservation, Ravi said. “This year, we had two schoolchildren – one from Class VII and the other from Class XI – participate in our ridley conservation process. They had undertaken turtle walks, helped us conserve the eggs and released the hatchlings too,” he said. Rehaan wanted to stay until the final hatchling joined the sea. But the skies had turned dark and he had no choice but leave. “When that turtle returns to nest 25 years later, I will come back,” Rehaan said, as he trudged off the beach.

*Name changed