Next time you are at Maravanthe Beach, do not forget to remember Dasi Kharvi, a fisherman who saved over 10,000 eggs of Olive Ridley turtles.
Next time you are at Maravanthe Beach, do not forget to remember Dasi Kharvi, a fisherman who saved over 10,000 eggs of Olive Ridley turtles, a species listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). For Dasianna, as he is fondly called by locals, his life’s mission is to save these endangered creatures.
It was in 1989 when Dasianna realised his affinity for Olive Ridley turtles. Back then, he was unemployed because all the boats at Hungarkatta and Kundapur fishing ports were hauled up due to the monsoon ban on fishing.
One night, as Dasianna was lying on the beach lamenting over his misfortunes, he saw a bale of turtles crawling through the sands of Maravanthe Beach. One wounded turtle caught his attention. The turtle’s shell was cracked, and she was having a hard time trying to crawl. Kharvi took her and managed to bandage her shell with his mundaas (a piece of clothing worn on the head by local fishermen).
He took care of the turtle for 15 days and nursed it back to health. When he opened the bandage, the shell had fused and the turtle crawled back and vanished into the sea.
“I heard somewhere that the same bale of turtles comes back year, but I never got to see the one I had nursed,” he said.
Kharvi had also found some villagers trying to steal the eggs laid by Olive Ridley turtles. Some even made a living stealing the eggs and selling them to nearby eateries on the seashore.
Having deprived of education or exposure, Dasianna does not know his own age. From his looks, one could tell he is not less than 70 years. But he is well-versed with turtles. Professor Radhakrishna, a Marine biologist, said: “There were studies by researchers on increasing the percentage of hatchlings conducted in research laboratories.
These studies, however, were not successful. The best they could come up with were 40% live hatchlings. But the conservation methods used by Dasianna, on the other hand, could get 60%-80% live hatchlings.”
Besides dedicating 25 years of his life to guarding Olive Ridley turtles, he had also donned several roles, such as a farm hand and a fisherman. “Many a time, I feel I have not been able to fulfil the needs of my family. However, I am happy that I played a role in saving the endangered Olive Ridley turtles. God willing,
I shall save that last of Olive Ridley turtle eggs from slipping from my cold dead fingers,” he said.
“I am happy that the forest department had started a Village Forest Committee at Maravanthe Beach, known as Maravanthe Turtle Conservation Initiative (MTCI). This came as a boon, and our conservation efforts got an official stamp. I used to count every egg my men and I hid from predators. To my knowledge, it could be roughly more than 10,000 in the last 20 years” he added.
Manjunath Shetty, assistant conservator of forests, Kundapur forest division, said: “We get nearly 300 to 400 turtles every year. Each of them lays not less than 30 eggs.The Olive Ridley is listed as an endangered species by the IUCN, and Dasianna is one of the top conservationist of Olive Ridley in his own rights.”
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