Take time with the turtles
ROHINI RAMAKRISHNAN
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Olive Kupammah and Ridley Suppamah tell their tale of survival.
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The beat of the thappu was the traditional beginning of a programme. And so began Nature Quest's puppet show on conservation by the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, at the Bookpoint recently. Shekar Dattatri introduced the special guest of the evening, Dr. R. Bhanumathi, who began with an introduction on puppetry, an art form that has been in existence for 2000-years and now dying a slow death. It began, she said, as a ritualistic and religious art form, and then went on to entertain people. She spoke of the etymology of the word in Tamil, Pavai and that Tholpavai meant shadow puppetry and Bomallattam were puppets on a string. A short play with shadow puppets followed. Titled "Let's save the environment", the theme: call a halt to cutting trees. Hit songs from Tamil films were incorporated into the script along with witty dialogues, which were entertaining and informative.
Turtle tales
An interactive demonstration with different types of puppets followed. And now we meet Olive Kupammah and Ridley Suppammah who tell a tale of survival.
Dressed in red and green sarees, the two turtles are anxious to get back to the beaches of their birth in Chennai where they hatched, to lay their own clutch of eggs.
In the dialogue that follows, we get to know that they swim over 1500 km especially in the cold months of December, January and February, to come to the beaches and lay 50 to 150 eggs.
But there are predators, man being chief among them. They steal the eggs and the fans in the trawlers and the nylon nets maim and kill them. When the young hatch, the strong lights on the beach misguide the young and they waddle off in the wrong direction, away from the waters where there are more predators waiting for them.
But the villager who visits the beach promises that things are going to change for the better for the turtles as the common man is being educated on the need to conserve the turtles, through puppet shows, documentaries, notices, books and turtle walks.
And therefore, the beaches of Chennai, which have been a nesting ground for turtles since 400 A.D., will be a haven for them and for man.
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