Olive turtle lands at Bandra after high tides hit the city

Olive turtle lands at Bandra after high tides hit the city, animal lovers and alert citizens help in its rescue

Author: Pawan Sharma Photo Credits: Utsav Maru

@ RAWW (Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare)

16/6/2014

At the rescue site

At BSPCA 

During rescue

A record shot for RAWW

At BSPCA 

An Olive ridley turtle was rescued from Bandra west by our rescue team yesterday. A distress call was forwarded to us regarding a big turtle which had landed on the beach attracting attention of the locals.  

The turtle was spotted off the shore late in the morning when the locals made a few attempts to help it go back in the water. But the attempts failed as the turtle came back two times after which followed low tide making things more difficult.

Another tragedy with the turtle was it had only three flippers/claws, but there were no fresh wounds which indicated that the turtle was successfully surviving in the wild.

Our rescue team soon rescued the turtle, immediately intimated the forest department and admitted it to BSPCA as it had infrastructural facilities for the turtle nearest to the rescue site.

"The turtle was rescued safely and admitted to BSPCA with an intimation to the forest department" said Utsav Maru, rescue team member of RAWW.

The vets have suggested that it should be sent to a permanent rescue center as there are chances that it may come back to the shore after release, however they have also said that it is fit and can be released back to its natural habitat too. Currently the discussions and strategies are in process and soon the decision will be taken by the forest department.

"The turtle has no fresh wounds and is declared fit by the vets, however absence of one claw has raised concerns and questions about its release. It can be released back to wild or can ever be sent to a permanent rescue center for life time. The decision will be taken by the forest department" said Rushil Bhatt, GM of RAWW. 

But then again some things should be left upto the wild, nature will take care of it very well.