Karnataka   

Sand-sculptures attract many

THE WINNER: Sand sculpture by Karavali Sand Heart Team which bagged the first prize.

Malpe: For the tourists and the local people who had come to Malpe beach, about six kilometres from Udupi, there was a surprise in store on Tuesday. They had come there expecting to enjoy the cool evening breeze, washing their feet in the waves of the Arabian Sea, and watch the sun set. But in addition to all these, they found sand sculptures of sea turtles in a substantial area of the beach.

These sand sculptures were prepared by 21 teams coming from different places as part of a competition held by the Department of Forests to create awareness about sea turtles. The three themes for the competition were “Kurmaavatara”, life-cycle of a turtle, and relation between human beings and turtles.

The competition started at 10.15 a.m. Every team was given 15 feet x 15 feet space to do their sand-sculpting. The sculpting had to be done with use of hands and traditional equipment. The teams had come prepared for the event. They got to their job immediately and had to sweat it out in the hot sun. Their work culminated at 5.30 p.m. President of Artists’ Forum, Udupi, Ramesh Rao, who dropped in to see the sand sculptures, said, “Sand-sculpting is a tiresome work. Yet these teams have done a good job of it.”

All the teams had created beautiful sand sculptures. Such was their beauty that it was difficult to say which one was more beautiful than the other. Sand sculptor of international repute Sudharshan Patnaik from Puri in Orissa, who was invited there by the department, said, “I am impressed by the work of these artists. Some of their work are novel. There is now more awareness about sand-sculpting in the country. I am doing what I can to create awareness about sand-sculpting. This art form should be recognised by the Government. There is no college teaching sand-sculpting in the country.”

Deputy Conservator of Forests R.K. Srivastava said, “The aim of the competition is to create public awareness on the coastline from Shiroor to Hejmady in Udupi district about the importance of sea turtles.”

The organisers had a tough time in deciding the winners. The Karavali Sand Heart Team of Udupi bagged the first prize of Rs. 25,000. Jitendra Kishore Jagdeva and his team from Orissa bagged the second prize of Rs. 15,000. The third prize of Rs. 5,000 went to Anil M. and his team from Udupi.

Deputy Commissioner V. Ponnuraj, Chief Conservator of Forests I.B. Srivastava and Conservator of Forests T.V. Mohandas were present.

Some participants, however, were dissatisfied with the results of the competition. They staged a protest against the decision of the jury saying that prizes were given to sand sculptures which did not gel with the theme of the competition.

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