One of the world’s largest populations of Olive Ridley turtles is found off the east coast of India in Orissa which is why protecting them and their habitat on Orissa’s coast is considered very important by conservationists. These turtles live at sea, but when females come to nest on land, they are captured from the beaches. Turned over on their backs on the hot sand in order to immobilise them, they are then transported live to cities where they are clandestinely sold. The eggs which are also eaten are illegally gathered during nesting periods between January and March.

It is unfortunate that particularly young turtles, due to bright lights (although some factories have along the coast have begun switching off their halogen lights during the nesting season) get disoriented and move in the wrong direction: shore-wards instead of going out into the sea.

The Dharma Port Company is a joint venture of Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro. As the mega-port is 5 kms close to the turtles’ mass nesting beach of the Gaharimatha National Park, Greenpeace (and other conservation groups) strongly opposed the project with the aim of protecting India’s coasts, and went as far as loading an online game called “Turtle vs. Tata” on their website. Despite objections from their own Marine Turtle Specialist Group members, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) partnered them. The port was officially inaugurated in December 2011, and by March 2013 proudly declared having crossed the 10 million MT of cargo for the year.

Olive Ridley turtles are also found on the Konkan coast where “turtle tourism” is being encouraged, but the turtles find it as difficult to survive on this coast because almost all their nests are stolen and sold at Rs 5/- per egg bringing in approximately Rs 750/- per nest of 150 eggs. Eggs take around 60 days to hatch and the chance of hatchlings emerging is only 60%. Local bodies along with the forest department organised a Turtle Festival in 2011 (under the auspices of “Save the Olive Ridley Turtle” project started by NGOs in 2002) on the Velas beach at Mandangad taluk in Ratnagiri district so that people can watch the eggs hatch – the organisers would ensure that they go into the sea safely. Furthermore ensure that the hatchings emerge successfully, hatcheries containing replicas of natural nests created in them were built in some of the nesting sites of the turtles.

Two years later in 2013, the festival covered not only Velas in Ratnagiri, but four other beaches in the Konkan region including Dive, Agar, Maral, Harihareshwar and Mochemad and attracted more Indian and foreign tourists. The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) also decided to organise a Dolphin (spotting) and Turtle (watching) festival on the beaches of Murud-Harnai and Velas in March with the aim of making the area one of the main tourist destinations in Maharashtra. During February-March 2015 more dolphins (than turtles) were spotted because of only a handful of turtle nests were laid due to untimely rain and excess sand on the beach.

In 2012 following a study commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme, it was revealed that the nesting area of Olive Ridley turtles had shrunk along with Maharashtra coastline, basically due to a change in high tide. The report also stated that despite many positive steps taken towards the conservation of Olive Ridley turtles, the population was constantly declining in this area due to exploitation of eggs, accidental mortality associated with shipping and the lack of use of turtle excluders by trawlers. It would have been much worse if the turtles’ nests had not been protected for nearly a decade – turtle fests organised by an NGO (with recent support from the Forest Department) in 36 villages along the coast while encouraging people to visit and witness turtles laying eggs, hatching and instinctively heading towards the sea, also effectively protected nests against poaching of eggs.

By February 2013, quite likely due to turtles losing their nesting site to industries, only 36 nests were found in Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts. Thus there was a further drop in nests and hatchings from 81 nests with 3,482 hatchlings in 2011, and 68 nests with 3,555 hatchlings in 2012. By December 2023 no turtles arrived to lay eggs at Raigad’s 3 beaches: Diveagark, Hareshwar and Shrivardhan, however 140 eggs were collected at the Maral beach of Raigad for incubation. The reason for the Olive Ridley decline was climate change and increase in tourists.

Sea-turtles along the Kerala coast are also dwindling and not only due to poaching – the turtle meat trade is prevalent in southern parts of the state. In addition to being killed in fishing trawler nets and due to marine debris, their nesting sites have been severely affected. They require sloping beaches to come onto the sands for hatching, but there are hardly any left because a substantial part of the coast has been walled to prevent erosion, thus making the beaches unsuitable for nesting. It was therefore very heartening when in January 2014 Keralites took a pledge to save them – both mosques and temples along the coastal areas of Kasaragod district sought pledges from their devotees to protect the endangered Olive Ridley turtles which turn up at their beaches for nesting every year.

In March 2018 after two decades Olive Ridleys returned to nest on Versova beach. Cleaning the beach was the main reason for their return.

In 2021 the Maharashtra Forest Department discovered Indian tent turtles and Indian roofed turtles (listed as ‘vulnerable’ in the IUCN red list) being illegally traded for meat, Chinese medicinal and even the pet trade, in Pune District. A case was registered against the culprit.

It was heartening to know that in August 2021 in a joint operation the Turtle Survival Alliance and the Maharashtra State Forest Department flew 63 rescued turtles from Pune to Assam to be released into their natural habitat.

In May 2022 when an Indian Flapshell turtle was found with a fishing hook in its mouth dangerously close to rupturing its food pipe it was revealed that this was the third such turtle brought to the RESQ Wildlife Treatment Transit Centre in Pune in the last few months. Given the fact that a maximum of 20% are detected and rescued such injured creatures suffer and die in the wild.

In December 2024 the Maharashtra Forest Department rescued 468 turtles and tortoises. They were part of an illegal trafficking and unlawful pet trade, found temporarily housed at various locations. Most of them were from Thane which had recorded many trafficking cases. RESQ (Pune) was treating them after which they would be released in the wild in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Assam.

Protection

Orissia’s fishermen have been strongly objecting to the Government’s annual ban on fishing for about seven months of the year along a 20 km stretch within the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary which is imposed at the beginning of the breeding season around October/November and continues through out the mass nesting of the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles, usually till end-May. Despite protection extended by the forest department, as many as 372 turtle carcasses were found on the beach in 2008. This is probably because no patrolling in boats is done by the foresters. Although NGOs helped, it was given up after loss of human lives on both sides.

Just as well that in May 2009 the Government of India re-declared a 7 km stretch in Ganga from Rajghat to Ramnagar Fort near Varanasi as the Ganga Turtle Sanctuary thus putting an end to Uttar Pradesh State Government’s plans of a luxury river cruise. Of the 29 species of tortoises and fresh water turtles found in India, the Ganges is home to 12 species and their adequate presence is an indicator of a healthy river ecosystem. (Incidentally the Ganga is also home to more than 143 species of fresh water fish.)

Since the Centre’s 1,620 kms national waterways project was to pass through this Kachhua Sanctuary (originally notified in 1989 as the country’s first freshwater turtle sanctuary under the Ganga Action Plan) it was unfortunately de-notified in 2018 and the Uttar Pradesh state government come up with a plan of a possible “relocation” of turtles to the Allahabad-Mirzapur stretch of the Ganga.

In December 2019 a vehicle was seized and 5 persons arrested by the Kakinada rural police with 4 tonnes of fresh water turtles stuffed in 150 gunny bags (25 to 30 kgs in each bag). They had been captured in East and West Godavari districts and were being smuggled to Odisha.

At the Madhavpur hatchery, the largest such along the coast of Gujarat, Green Sea turtles are protected from poachers and predators. In February 2018, 1785 hatchlings were released.

In November 2021, 120 tortoises were released in the Chandrapur forest by the Maharashtra Forest Division. They had been rescued with the help of a NGO ResQ Charitable Trust from illegal pet traders and traffickers from Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Alibag and other places of the state.

Trawling Hazard

Trawlers or mechanised fishing vessels go out to the sea for ten days at a stretch consuming about 3,000 litres of diesel. To protect fish-breeding and decrease the catch, they are banned during the monsoon but if the rains are not heavy country crafts are allowed to venture into the sea.

USA banned the import of shrimps from India that are harvested by fishing vessels not fitted with the Turtle Excluder Device (TED) developed by the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology. As per international law a TED consists of a trap door placed in shrimp-nets, allowing the air-breathing sea turtles to escape without drowning. Nevertheless, mass killing of turtles (and some dolphins) is attributed to reckless and illegal fishing by trawlers (mechanised fishing boats) in the prohibited areas of the coast because fishermen are reluctant to fit the mandatory TEDs. Hundreds of TEDs have been given free to Orissa’s fishermen, but they are not used because when their trap doors open to release the turtles, 10% of the fish caught also escape.

In May 2011 about 150 Olive Ridley turtles were trapped and died in a single net on Kothapeta beach near Vajrapukotturu Mandal in Srikakulam district of Karnataka. The disaster occurred because of no TED fitted to the mechanised boat or trawler.

The fact remains that trawlers go on killing thousands of turtles with their long and broad nets since they scoop up all lives that are caught. 40-80% is the by-catch (what is not consumed by humans) and is either thrown back into the sea or ground into fishmeal for fertilisers and chicken feed. Turtles, when caught in these nets, suffocate and die (it is vital for them to rise above the surface of the water and breathe every half hour or earlier) and therefore fall into the category of being thrown back into the sea. But, do they really get thrown back into the sea is the big question? Every one knows that meat and shells of turtles are illegally traded.

Around Chennai turtles have been tagged and the information tracked regarding their feeding grounds and congregation paths is being given to fishermen who are requested not to fish in particular sensitive areas, or to at least lift their nets every 40 minutes, especially during the breeding season.

While the government said no more than 800 turtles were killed between November 2010 and February 2011, environmentalists countered that the figure was actually 5,000. The fact remains that despite a 7-month ban on fishing to help conserve Orissa’s marine sanctuaries, the interests of fishermen are considered much more important by the government and fish farming like crab fattening, sea bass or composite fish culture, scampi or fresh-water prawn culture are being promoted in 60 villages as alternative livelihoods.

Plastic garbage thrown in the sea also accounts for sea turtles being killed. They probably think it is jelly fish, consume it and die.

Similarly, turtles have been affected by oil spills and have been washed up dead or dying. In April 2010 parts of the Ganjam coast in Orissa lay covered with oil after a ship carrying coal from Indonesia, which was anchored at Gopalpur port, was hit by a motor boat and developed a crack in its fuel tank. Although most of the spilled oil was immediately cleared from the sea-surface, environmentalists feared that the Olive Ridley turtle eggs may have been damaged – over 200,000 eggs had been laid near the mouth of the Rushikulya, about 20 km from the port.

Furthermore, leakage of oil due to a crack in the Paradip-Haldia underground pipeline of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) posed a threat to Olive Ridley sea turtles in January 2011. (Ironically in 2004 the Supreme Court observed that the Rs 1 crore given by IOC for turtle protection had not been utilised for 4 years!) The traditional marine fishermen’s association protested that such oil leaks were occurring often and that they made the water toxic like in this instance which resulted in aquatic life like prawns perishing.

In 2009, a leatherback turtle was rescued at Kanyakumari. It was not only tied to an anchored fibre-glass boat, but a sand bag and stone were tied to it so it would not escape.

In 2019 the Olive Ridley turtles did not show up at Rushikulya to lay eggs just as they hadn’t in 2002, 2007 and 2016. Climate change, illegal fishing and illumination of the Gopalpur port and other establishments were blamed. However, by end March 2020 Odisha had witnessed day time nesting after a gap of 7 years. It was obviously due to lack of tourists as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown. Similarly in Maharashtra, the popular annual Olive Ridley turtle nesting season festivals had been called off, but reports of finding nests in places where they were never seen before were received.

In 2001 an experiment to track the turtle path through satellite telemetry technique was unsuccessfully conducted, this was followed in 2007 by fitting some female turtles with platform transmitter terminals which developed technical snags resulting in the death of some turtles. So once again in 2009 another experiment was undertaken by fitting 40 transmitters at an estimated Rs 3.5 crore. Beauty Without Cruelty believes such experiments are downright cruel and obviously a colossal waste of money by the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun.

Superstitions

Turtles fall in the category of exotic pets. For example, the black spotted turtle is found attractive enough to poach and smuggle out of India. Thousands of turtles were seized during the year ending March 2014.

Star tortoises and turtles are gifted or bought because Feng Shui claims they are lucky; but few realise how very unlucky and extremely cruel it is for the turtles themselves to be cooped up in apartments, walking on tiles instead of earth. Over and above which they are an endangered species and are also smuggled out of the country. Depending on the species, the person caught could very well be imprisoned for six months.

On 23 May 2019 World Turtle Day, BWC came out with an awareness creating Hinsa vs. Ahinsa e-mailer about illegal trapping of star tortoises. That they were being starved so that the smuggled consignments weigh less was stated and we added that keeping star tortoises was cruel and unlucky.

BWC was therefore pleased when in August 2019 the United Nations’ Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) at their meeting in Geneva voted to totally ban international trade in star tortoises by upgrading them to Appendix I (threatened with extinction). We hope this will help in stopping or at least curtailing the illegal trade in star tortoises.

Turtles are also utilised for black magic by exorcists and can cost any thing from Re 1 to Rs 3 lakhs.

In May 2012 some animal activists discovered that a person from Jalandhar was illegally selling turtles on line, following which the Wildlife Crime Bureau was approached to save them, and of course catch and punish the person under the Wildlife Act. Some years ago turtles were also found to be illegally sold by a dealer in Punjab when raids were successfully conducted. And, in January 2013 a man was arrested at Pune and the 10 tortoises he was trying to sell confiscated. Then in March 2013, customs authorities at Mumbai seized a checked-in suitcase to Bangkok containing 97 turtles that had been individually wrapped in cloth.

Products from Turtles

In 1977 the worldwide trade of tortoise-shell (“bekko” in Japanese) was banned under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) but underground trade in South-East Asia continues.

Turtles are farmed (bred and raised to be killed) in China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, USA and Cayman Islands.

In earlier times, the turtle carcass was allowed to decay in cool water before processing; now 20% lime is used to quicken the process. Vinegar processing is also a method used by the Chinese. For crafting ornamental items, the shells are softened and made pliable by either boiling in salt water or applying direct heat. In its softened state, the shell can be easily bent, shaped or embossed; and when it cools back to room temperature, it retains its new shape and form.

Turtle meat and turtle eggs are common and turtle soup is well known, but calipee, the medicinal delicacy that is found inside the lower half of the shell, is processed and frequently smuggled out from India to Bangladesh (from where it goes to China) without it being detected for what it is because it is claimed to be fish scales or buffalo horn extracts. The cost of 1 kg of processed calipee is only Rs 3,000/- in India, but its price soars to Rs 12,000/- in Bangladesh.

One of the places where poaching occurs is the Hastinapur Wild Life Sanctuary (Uttar Pradesh) through which the Ganga, Ram Ganga and Kho rivers flow. As the water levels dip in the rivers, usually during the months of November and December, people hunt to sell them to 5 Star hotels for making soup.

Banjo-like musical instrument made from a single carapace (protective dorsal or upper section of the shell) as the resonator.

Fire-bellows (a fan that pushes air at low constant pressure into a burning fire) each made from either one or two carapaces.

Small sea turtles are killed, stuffed and marketed as tourist souvenirs and curios. In 2013 BWC signed a petition requesting China to ban the frivolous and cruel manufacture and sale of jewellery, amulets, key chains, etc. having tiny live animals such as turtles sealed in a plastic bag containing a nutrient liquid and oxygen that supposedly allows the poor little creatures to live up to two months.

The plastron (belly or lower half of the shell) is almost flat and used by the Chinese for plastromancy or divination, as oracle bones, and for traditional medicines in Cambodia as well. Taiwan imports hundreds of tons of plastrons every year to make guilinggao jelly (shell gelatine), a dessert with medicinal properties.

Tortoise-shell obtained from the carapace of certain tortoises and turtles, especially the critically endangered hawksbill turtles, is mainly utilised in decorative items, personal accessories like stylish hair clips, buttons, and combs, sunglasses, compact and trinket boxes teamed with silver, cigarette cases, shaving brush, knife and other handles, door knobs, candlesticks, trays, frames, lamps, figurines, jewellery (particularly bangles, also Victorian Era pique work), guitar and banjo picks.

Faux tortoise-shell finish (also known as French ivory) which involved painting in three typical colours (gold, copper and bronze) was first popular in the mid-1800s and used for clocks and other items. Over the years, resins, bakelite (polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride) and other alternative materials (plastics) were utilised to produce faux tortoise-shell items. The latest alternative is tortoise-shell plexi (or plexiglass) which is a light transparent weather resistant thermoplastic. However, imitation or faux tortoise-shell called Tortex was developed much later, in the 1970s. Tortex picks replicate tortoise-shell for guitarists, and the Torti pick for the banjo players.

Turtle blood and body-parts are used as aphrodisiac, livestock feed and fishing bait.

Turtle bones are made into tools, art objects, jewellery and fertilisers.

Turtle leather, considered strong, is used to make gloves, purses and footwear.

Turtle oil and fat is extracted from the muscles and genital glands of the giant sea turtle, used in supplements, ointments, cosmetics, creams, lotions and soaps supposedly to promote skin rejuvenation by tightening muscles. However, in South America turtle oil is prepared from turtle eggs and is said to be as good as cod liver oil.

Turtle wax, used for polishing cars is not derived from turtles but is a brand name.

Turtle is also a brand name used by a men’s apparel and accessories manufacturer.