Olive Ridley turtles lead the way to show that tourism and conservation can coexist
Mohan Upadhye, co-founder of Velas Turtle Festival |
In 2006, nearly four years after environmental non-profit organisation Sahyadri Nisarg Mitra began its conservation of Olive Ridley turtles along various beaches of the Konkan region, local villagers’ view of these creatures had already been transformed. Those who earlier dug out the eggs laid by the female of the species on sandy shores to eat or sell them had begun to acknowledge that the population of this marine mammal, listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, had begun to dip owing to human interference with their habitats and migratory routes.
“That’s when we thought that a turtle festival could improve tourism and improve incomes,” says Mohan Upadhye, among the founders of the Velas Turtle Festival in Ratnagiri.
As a pilot, a one-day festival was planned. Six of Velas village’s 225 homes, including the Upadhyes, agreed to host guests. With 125 bookings received within days from tourists and wildlife lovers keen to watch the little turtle hatchlings make their first trek to the sea, Upadhye approached owners of homes in Velas that remained locked most of the year, their residents settled in Mumbai or elsewhere.
“The responsibility of managing these homes and cooking for the visitors was given to women’s self-help groups,” says Upadhye, also a researcher with the Mangrove Foundation. One of those SHG groups went on to set up a taluka-level catering business.
Almost two decades later, the turtle festival remains a resounding success, bringing livelihoods to people, ever-growing support for the conservation of the turtles, and acceptance of a form of tourism that cares for nature and biodiversity.
Velas village, which until five years ago did not even enjoy mobile phone coverage, now has 45 home-stays. The gram panchayat passed key resolutions that maintain the authenticity of the travel experience here — there are no hotels or resorts; all guests and visitors live in the home-stays, and there is no motorable road to the beach, nor streetlights along the beachfront. “We want to maintain it as a village, this will protect villagers from land purchases by big hotel-owners, and it protects the beaches for the turtles,” says Upadhye.
From February through April, visitors are guided to watch the hatchlings scurry towards the Arabian Sea, in the early mornings and late in the evenings, and Upadhye or his colleagues offer a briefing about the Olive Ridleys, their conservation, etc.
In 2010, Sahyadri Nisarg Mitra made a documentary film about the Olive Ridleys, which is now screened for visitors inside a homestay, at 7 pm.
During other hours, and during the off-season for the turtles, there are guided walks along the intertidal zone, birding and other nature-based activities, all conducted by local youngsters who Upadhye trained. “Everybody knows now that you can ask Velas kids to identify any species of birds or animals, they are that well-informed and trained,” he says.
Two years back, locals discovered 20 petroglyphs in a village located 10 km away, now another site to visit. Petroglyphs are rock carvings, one of humankind’s oldest-known art forms, and Konkan is home to at least 1,500 specimens of this art dating back 4,000 to 5,000 years. Upadhye and his team also conduct summer and winter camps for children, focusing on what experiences tourism should really offer.
Selected to be a member of a biodiversity mapping project of the Mangroves cell of the state government in 2016-17, Upadhye’s love for the wild has proven to be infectious. Early one morning this week, he was called to help rescue a nine-feet python trapped near a residential area. As he started out, a group of local youth joined him, those he believes will carry forward the legacy of Velas’s love for turtles.
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