Velas Turtle Festival - Part 5/5 - Village Experience

The village experience in Velas was memorable with morning walks to the beach, having home made food and more importantly lived 2 days without mobile signal, forget about internet.

After the Velas beach visit on the 2nd day, we had authentic poha for breakfast and headed for the nearby Baankot fort. The fort was close by but the road was narrow. At one point, as seen in the picture below, there wasn't enough space for the bus to take turn for uphill. The driver asked half of us to get down, took the bus in reverse direction and had taken a turn, by this time few from our group starting walking. Rest of us went ahead in the bus and asked the driver to stop considering it to be a long walk for our fellow members. Fortunately for us, it was cloudy that day and at this juncture most of us got down and trekked uphill to reach the fort. 

Velas Turtle Festival - Part 2/5 - The Walk

As in any other trip, our first visit to the beach was exciting. Since it was already 5 PM by the time we reached Velas, we were told to proceed to the beach to see the evening sessionof turtle release. We left our baggage in the bus and headed towards the beach carrying our cameras. We walked throught the narrow lanes in the villages, passing by tatched roofed houses neatly lined up, beautiful plantations, enquiring the way to the beach. Although some of the villagers responded in Marathi, we managed to go in the right direction. 

Finally we hit a road after walking for about 2 kms and then realized that vehicles could come to this point. This helped us in the next 3 visits where we managed to come by our mini bus till this point. 

We could see hoarding lined up all the way to the coast from this point. They were lot informative and you can read them for yourselves.

I was surprised to see TCS's name in few hoardings and no wonder it was sponsored by the Maitree team in their last visit. There were other hoardings which contained logos of the NGO and Maharashtra Tourism Department. At one point we could a channel constructed on both the ends of the path way clearly indicating that it is to prevent vehicular movement in this area.  

on the way to the beach

on the way to the beach

small bridge that we had to cross on our way

One the first visit, It took us 45 mins to get close to the enclosure where the nests are protected. It was nearing sunset and the time was perfect. Click here to read about the turtle release.

We got back to the village to rest after long journey and witnessing 7 baby turtles released on our first visit. Rest of the visits were as good as the first one, some preferring to walk and others took the bus to the half way point. 

Velas Turtle Festival - Part 4/5 - Conservation

Over the 2 days that we stayed in Velas, we had an opportunity to interact with the organizers and villagers to understand the Turtle Festival as they call it. Of the 5 species of Marine turtles seen on Indian Coast, 4 species are found in Maharashtra coast line. Olive Ridley turtles are found  across entire Maharashtra coast line. Interestingly, of all the Olive Ridley turtles that lay eggs in the Maharashtra coast line, 40% of them are found in Velas. It was observed that many eggs were eaten by dogs, seagulls, eagles, crabs  or stolen and traded. Adult turtles were killed for oil or meat. These turtles were identified to be endangered species and the villagers and Sahayadri Nisarga Mitra, NGO decided to put an end to this and conserve the turtles. It all started twelve years ago and have improved the way the conservation happens over the years.

Baby turtles crawling their way to the sea

Each year adult female Olive Ridley turtles come ashore to lay eggs in nests any time from November to January. Each female can lay between 100 and 150 eggs. During this period the villagers and volunteers (supported by NGO) search the coast covering about 2.5 kms every morning tracking the claw marks left by the turtles. When they locate the nest, they dig out the nest, measure the depth of it and collect the eggs. The data of each nest is recorded. The collected eggs are taken back to the safety enclosure constructed on the beach, artificial nest is dug measuring same depth and eggs are carefully kept in the nest and is filled with sand. They also keep a scale indicating the date so that the hatching time can be calculated easily. Sometimes the villagers sleep on the beach during the breeding season.

Turtle Festival

Hatching of eggs happen take 45-65 days and it is observed that only 40-50% of the eggs hatch. When the hatching begins in a nest, it would take 3-4 days for all the turtles to come out. Towards the end of hatching period, the nests are covered with a basket. Since the baby turtles cannot withstand the heat in the day or coldness of the sand in the night, the turtles are safegaured in the baskets in the enclosure and are released at 7 AM in the morning and 6 PM in the evening every day. The festival starts at the estimated first hatching and lasts for about a month. Click here to read about our journey to Velas and click here to read about the turtle release.

Velas Turtle Festival - Part 3/5 - The Release

It was 5:45 PM on Saturday evening by the time we got close to the enclosure for our first visit where the turtle eggs are protected. We walked for 45 mins to reach the enclosure. Being Saturday evening, it was crowded. Volunteers were briefing the crowd and passing out instructions on maintaining the distance when the turtles are released and not getting into the waters for 10-15 mins as here are chances of baby turtles getting back to the shores caught in waves and getting under the feet. We listened to the instructions and were all excited to catch a glimpse of the babies. One of the volunteer, entered the enclosure and lifted the basket one after the other. Click here to read more about the conservation. Finally under the last basket there were 7 baby turtles out of the nest and ready to swim. Some were so excited that they started singing Happy Birthday song. The volunteers and villagers were very particular and did not allow anybody into the enclosure. They were trained in handling the eggs, hatchings and handled the turtles carefully.

Depending on the crowd, barricades were placed at the shore to control the crowd. Close to the shore, about 20 feet away from the waters, baby turtles are carefully placed on the land. It was a great experience to watch the babies crawl towards waters as soon as they are placed on the land. Each turtle crawls and make its way towards the waters leaving beautiful claw marks on the sand. Sometime, It appears as if they are racing with one another to reach the sea. 

In the 4 sessions that we attended, we were able to see release of 7,6,0 and 8 turtles respectively. After the first 2 sessions, some of our group members got suspicious and wondered if this is hype created as we could not see the hatchings but saw the baby turtles neatly placed on under the basket on the sand without any depression created when they come out after hatching. May be to clear this suspicion, we have witnessed a turtle half way through in the 3rd session and we also were able to see two other small depressions in the same nest indicated 2 other babies were on their way.

As there were no turtles that have come out this time, first time visitors had to go back disappointed. The sight of baby turtle half way through the sand cleared the air and we returned back that night hoping to see the last release next morning. If you are wondering why don't they help the turtle out of sand and release it in the water, well, some of us had similar doubt and when asked, we were told that the effort the baby turtle puts in to come out of the nest helps them in strengthening their fins. Similarly there is a reason behind releasing the turtles some distance away from the waters. Crawling to the waters help them in strengthening their fins and muscles which will enable them to swim in the waters.

shot with all 8 turtles crawling their way to the sea on the final day

The organizers have said that the number of nests are going down each year as many turtles are getting trapped in the fishing nests, going under the fans of boats and are killed by predators. The effort that is put by the Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra(SNM), NGO and the villagers is tremendous and we could see the excitement when one of the villagers who is actively involved and overseeing all this said that they can't wait to see the first batch released from this place to come back. If you are wondering if they are tracking the turtles, they do not, just hoping to see a rise in the number of nests would give them the indication that the babies released 12 years ago have come back.

Velas Turtle Festival - Part 1/5 - The Journey

I have been part of GHAC Travel and Leisure and Twin Cities Photography Club communities in meetup from the last 2 years. I have been following the events and ignoring them until I came across an event that I could not let go. It is Save the turtle festival - village and beach experience. The event was posted 2 months before the travel date. Being an avid follower of wildlife in Discovery and NGC, I was intrigued by the idea of witnessing baby turtles crawling their way to the waters after hatching. Although I have not enrolled initially, I was closely following it. Finally two weeks before the event, I made up my mind and enrolled myself.

The event is about participating in a Turtle festival which involves witnessing the hatching and release of Olive Ridley Turtles. Since no one can guarantee the hatchings, the organizers have planned a 3 day trip which would give us opportunity to attend 4 sessions to maximize the chances of seeing the turtle release.

On the 4th of April, 2014, friday evening we boarded the bus to Pune. It was a very well planned trip where the organizers have coordinated with all the travellers and made all the arrangements. The expectations were set for the stay as there are no hotels or resorts, home stay was arranged with vegetarian food. We reached Pune at 7:30 AM on Saturday, sneaked into a hotel to fresh up and had our breakfast and started to Velas at 10 AM in a private hired minibus which organizers booked in advance. Velas is at a distance of about 240 kms from Pune. We had taken the route:  Pune --> Mangaon --> Mhasaala --> Harihareshwar --> Baagmandla --> Vesvi --> Bankoot --> Velas. The journey took about 7 hours since we had to go through ghat section and stopped by couple of places for tea and lunch. 

View of a hill on the way to Velas

At Baagmandla, we got into a jetty/ferry which transported vehicle along with us to other side of the creek. 

Ferry carrying vehicles and passengers on river Savitri

In a short while we crossed the river Savitri creek and reached Vesvi at 4:30 PM. Shortly we covered 4 kms and reached Velas close to 5 PM. Click here to read about the walk to the turtles enclosure and release of baby turtles.