Out of the sea she came, but something terrible had happened, for, she was badly wounded. Will she get help? Will she be healed? Sagarika was lucky, for she was found by people who cared enough to take care of her.
On March 18, 2011, two fishermen, Sarveswaran and Deivasundaram were walking on the beach. At the water's edge, they saw something that looked familiar. “What is a sea turtle doing here?” they said and ran to take a closer look. The sea turtle had a deep cut on its back (carapace) and front left flipper.
A few years ago, the fishermen would have tossed it into the sea and walked away. But campaigns with Tree Foundation, an organisation that cares for sea animals, had taught them that they could help the turtle get well.
They called the Tree Foundation. The turtle was taken to the Veterinary Hospital for first-aid. With the vets assuring them that the treatment would help her get well, the volunteers took her to the turtle shed — a nursing home, at The Tree Foundation office.
Kids came to see her, older ones to feed her and clean her tub. She was named “Sagarika”. She came out of the sea, right?
With medicines, turmeric baths, fresh fish to eat and a lot of attention, Sagarika got better. Her shell shone with the beautiful markings. She also got bigger.
A year later, it was time for her to return to the sea, her real home. On the evening of May 19, 2012, Dr. Supraja Dharani of Tree Foundation invited people to give Sagarika a farewell.
Fishermen volunteers spoke about the importance of preserving animals and what we should do if we see an injured sea creature. Kids could pet Sagarika and many took photographs. Her tub was put in a small, open motorboat, which vroomed! into the sea. Some distance into the sea, there was an underwater rock formation where Sagarika could find a lot of fish.
She was taken out of the tub and gently eased in. She hesitated a bit, but soon began to swim. A fisherman jumped in to help her find her way, to calm her in the open sea. He moved around with her in the rolling waves and made sure she went out into the vast ocean.
We clicked pictures and said bye-bye. “Go Sagarika, have a safe journey in the ocean. And come back whenever you feel like. On this shore you will be safe.”
Keywords: sea turtle, Fishermen volunteers, Tree Foundation
This took place on the coast of Chennai. Do log on to the Tree Foundation website or call them for more details.
i like yours great humanity
Hats off to the Tree Foundation and those fishermen involved. Let this good habit of preserving our mother nature continue and this message should spread all corners of this world.
Great job towards nature.
Thanks for waking us.
I wish people could reflect same story for other needy people. we have enough to help them not necessarily with money only, what we are lacking is softcorner in heart and feelings how we can make surroundings more pleasent.
Thanks a lot to Hindu for publishing some positive news , and Kudos to
Tree foundation . You guyz have done reallly a great job
Well! This tribute towards humanity made all of us provide, I would really appreciate the work and also urge people to be part of such activity and should initiative, So bring the change in ourself can only make the change in the whole world.
What about the 'fresh fish' that were fed to the turtle? Humanity for animals is selective, i guess.
hats off for such kind and humanitarian act ...
Great job by Tree Foundation. Good to know that humanity still prevails
in the society. This news should spread so that people in other states
also start something like Tree Foundation. And I hope this doesn't stays
limited only to sea animals. Even the Animals on land need such kind of
protection, for that they are surrounded by "humans".
Hats off to the people who were involved in taking care of this sweet little creature and nursing it back to health.This goes to prove that man is still kind to his fellow creatures. Great lessons to be learnt by all of us from this incident. I thank THE HINDU for highlighting this incident. I would request THE HINDU to name the place where this took place. I would like to visit that place and thank the people there for this act.
Great work by the Tree foundation....
Kudos to the people who did such a marvelous job. If everyone starts caring for the environment and animals, we would certainly have a blue planet and greener earth. God bless....
@Jitendra Gupta: Yes, it is very true that we all have borrowed these resources from our children.
any small action to preserve the nature and its elements will go a long way in help our future generations.
Indeed great effort with humanity ! Great job by the Tree foundation...
This should spread in the whole country.
I would like to thank everybody involved in restoring this and many other creatures (land, sea, and air) to their natural habitats. I was so thrilled to read that people have changed and now realize that we are not alone, nor are we lords over other creatures. This reminds me of a news item (I am not certain about the details) about a small village in Brazil (I think) where the residents helped dolphins go back to sea - they had washed ashore due to some confusion. A visitor to that village watched and used a video camera to capture the successful efforts, and put it on the Internet. The rest of the world (including me) watched, and this small unknown village is now a star attraction for tourists. I thank you all again. Also, I thank The Hindu for giving all the details (including names), but please: you don't state it: where is this place (must be on the east coast, Bay of Bengal, Tamil Nadu). Maybe, one day, I will visit this place. Thank you all again.
RMR, 28 MAY 2012
Lovely story, hope this is replicated all over the world wherever an animal needs help from Humanity..
In our capacities we all can do a lot of things. There are lots of things which can be done and can make the world to be better place to live in co-existence. A great person has said, "We have not inherited resources from our ancestors, we have borrowed these from our children."
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