Velas Turtle Hatching Festival, March 2018

Velas Beach, Maharashtra

A girlfriend I made at Vipasana (I will tell you all about that later) suggested we get out of the city for the weekend, and check out the "Turtle Hatching Festival" at Velas, a small village in Ratnagiri District, Maharashtra.
Here's a less-famous spot (vs Puri) in the country, where the famously endangered Olive Ridley turtles come to hatch their eggs, and the festival is an effort to conserve them and spread awareness. Hmm. So that's what I heard, and sounded good enough to go.

We booked a package group tour with this eco-conscious? company, and were on our way out of the city in a rickety mini-bus with 12 other strangers late-night on a Friday (March 16, 2018 to be precise).
The 2-day tour cost us Rs 2800 per person, including food, accommodation in a village homestay, and travel.
We reached Velas at about 430 am, and were shown our rooms: basically a host of mattresses and shared toilets in this lovely village home. The hosts were most hospitable and the food was authentic and delicious.

Homestay hosts cooking up delicious Ambolis - rice flour crepes

Velas is a beautiful, vast black sand beach surrounded by rich flora and fauna: hyenas, eagles, mangroves and the works. Until 2002, spurred by a need for additional sources of livelihood and a lack of awareness, the villagers would sell the eggs, or make omelettes and eat 'em up! So when Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra - the key NGO for turtle conservation in the area - showed up, they had to figure out a way to involve and engage the locals in the whole struggle of conservation.

The villagers and the gram panchayat, SNM and the Forest Department of Chiplun got together and came up with the Turtle Hatching Festival, where visitors would only have homestays to stay at, thus providing supplement income to the villagers, while creating interest and awareness about Olive Ridley turtles, and a whole bunch of other creatures that need some attention. They have managed to keep the village hotels-free and hence, is still a non-commercial small-scale venture, and the villagers are involved in all aspects of turtle conservation.

View from Bankot Fort

In one of the documentary sessions with a conservationist who has been doing this for 14 years, there were repeated mentions of how Maharashtra Tourism Development Corp (clearly a govt. body) is dyinnnngggg to set up their well-known governmenty resort at the beach, and everyone is dead against it (A: Because it will disrupt the homestay livelihood of the villagers, B: More harm to the environment with more visitors, water sports, jet skis, garbage, etc etc), even if it means bravely refuting bribes, big monies, and all of all that …. because Good always wins over Evil … !??! As sarcasm slowly oozes out my being, here’s the BIG BUTTTT.

Even as we waited around the fenced hatchery where the eggs are moved to and protected, once the mommas have hatched ‘em in the wee hours of the morning or late night (thankfully the beach is cordoned off and not accessible to junta when the mommas come to hatch), out came frisbees, footballs, flash cameras, snacks, bottled water, noise, noise and more noise. Then the elaborate act of the designated volunteers waiting till the fences of the hatchery are bending with peering prying human faces, and once it is indeed crowded ENOUGH, they will walk in solemnly, and carry out this ritual of turning over the baskets that cover the marked areas where the eggs are buried. There were only three such nests when I went, and the first two days, the eggs hadn’t hatched.

Fenced hatchery, Velas

And there was trash on the beach, and apparently it was all garbage that had floated from the opposite temple town of Harihareshwar, where there IS an MTDC, water sports, no turtles, and is clearly not all that eco-conscious. That town was a part of our itinerary. Hmm. And when we did reach Harihareshwar, it was kilometers of garbage along the coastline and river bank.

And so once the eggs hatch, the babies are taken to the shore, and allowed to wade into the ocean. They are not directly taken to the ocean, but have to make their way to the water, because this helps them memorize the invisible lines of the Earth’s magnetic fields, and after all their journeys, this helps them return to the place of their birth and lay their own eggs.

On Sunday, our final morning, seven baby turtles had sensationally hatched into existence, much to loud cheers and exclamations of “Ganpati Bappa Moryas” and whistles and hoots. I mean, I was just glad I am not one of those turtles. Given my metaphorical weak heart, I would have died of shock or human infection even before seeing the light of day. Infection from humans: I did ask the popular conservationist if these turtles could catch an infection, and he nodded vigorously in agreement. We were told not to get in the way of the turtles while they are on the shore … Duh. But no, there were people right in front of the turtles taking their pictures, and definitely BLOCKING their way by doing so.

Olive Ridley hatchlings

In the past, it was the NGO and their allotted volunteers that would handle these activities. And so when the turtles are released into the ocean, there would be ropes demarcating where the visitors can stand and witness or document this event. But “there is a new political party now, and this is how they are carrying out the activities,” said the conservationist, who urged me to take pictures of the chaos that unveiled in front of me, as evidence showing the current party’s inefficiency.

“Butttt what about these poor rare babies, don’t you care that these seven fellas make it,” thought naive I.

Dem crowds marching to witness what we came to witness!

So, hey man. Some of all of this is politically driven, or will soon (too soon) become so. And the beach is beautiful. Relatively emptier than its neighbor. And it hosts these wonderful VIPS of the ocean world. What is there not to capitalize then? To me, it seems like the turtle-hatching eco-tourism market is only gonna go upward from here. And then turtle merchandise, and turtle-inspired water games, dating games, and video games, and turtle-driven competitions and music festivals and fashion shows, all in the name of conservation: but are they really being conserved? You know how it goes. Sitting atop this brilliant natural phenomenon are people: and all people are corruptible, power-hungry, vulnerable, and somewhat unreliable when it comes to earthy matters. And my people? More-so. Sooooo, if its all positive and eco-friendly at the moment, it is only because Velas has evaded the EVIL ECO-INSENSITIVE ENTREPRENEURIAL EYE so far.

But, seriously. If any of you know more about the subject, or can point out how I'm missing something or am perceiving it all wrong, because I'm blinded by my grumpiness, please share them with me. I'm all for changing for the better.

If not. I would urge you to dig deeper, and really try and KNOW what's going on: especially when words like eco, green, organic and conservation are thrown around. It makes capitalism taste so sweet ...