An Olive Ridley sea turtle that was rescued in January and treated for three months was released at sea on Wednesday.
On January 21, 52-year-old S. Sakarvarti, who had gone to sea with his fellow fishermen, saw a huge net floating around. He wanted to pull it closer to the boat and see it too high, to the annoyance of others. After much persuasion by Sakarvarti, the group brought the net closer and found the tortoise trapped in the net. “Others felt that we should let it be as she may soon die. But I could not. I wanted to give it my best and bring her to the shores alive for some treatment,” he said .
After three months of treatment and rehabilitation at the Tree Foundation Rescue and Rehabilitation Center here, Sakarvarti on Wednesday said goodbye to the rescued turtle Saki.
Tree Foundation chairperson Supraja Dharini said Saki (namely named after friend and her rescuer Sakarvarti) was special as it was challenging to treat her after she was caught in a ghost’s net weighing 1,464 kg. When they rescued him, his front flipper got caught in the net and he suffered fatal injuries to the soft flesh of his throat. This resulted in the dissection of the flipper.
R. Jayaprakash, specialist veterinarian, treated her and she was given medical attention for a long time. During this time, Saki were kept in seawater rehabilitation tanks and fed with fish, squid, shrimp and crabs. “While we are happy to have him back, we think about the human-inspired challenges he has to face. Not only turtles but all marine life face problems due to fisheries, ghost nets and fishing gear. We have recently started an incentive program for fishermen with HCL Foundation.
Saki was released around 11.30 am on Wednesday, about 3 km from the Nilankarai coast. “I’m glad he made it. But we feel bad for letting him go. We will miss him,” he said.
DMK Environment Wing Secretary Kartikeya Sivasenpati recalled that the nature has suffered a lot in the last few decades.