Diaa Hadid, Jackie Lay/NPR
Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR’s international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world.
India has some pretty successful efforts to protect the olive ridley sea turtle, a vulnerable species which nests on the country’s long coastlines. Every nesting season, thousands of females dig holes on the seashore with their flippers, and each one lays dozens of eggs inside. To keep them safe from threats like dogs and poachers, activists collect the eggs and incubate them in protected hatcheries.
After they hatch, activists collect them in tubs — like these little guys I photographed in April along the coast south of Mumbai — and then the baby turtles are tipped out onto the sand, so they can crawl into the Arabian Sea.
Tiny, slow and clumsy — these hatchlings are an easy snack for predators. But for this one moment, as they crawl into the waves, they’re protected by conservationists, who shoo away marauding crabs, seagulls and dogs. Sometimes, tourists may watch at a distance. And pretty quickly, the tourists start cheering on the hatchlings to get into the sea. The tourists clap when they’re finally in. It’s like a victory for the little guy, and every time I think about it, it makes me smile.
See more photos from around the world:
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