Photo: Santanu Majumdar. Along with their nature guide and boatman, the travellers disentangled the trapped and injured turtles and informed the Forest Department. The department immediately sent across a speedboat, and the turtles were handed over to the relevant officials. The incident took place on the channel that leads from Pirkhali to Gazikhali. The olive Ridley turtle is listed a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List.
The fast-thinking tourists were Santanu Majumdar, Soubhik Ghosh, Rana Chatterjee,Kaushik Patra, Indranil Mukherjee, Sabuj Samanta and Subhasish Ghosh, who were accompanied by boatman Suvasish Mistry and guide Himanshu Mandal.
Sanctuary Asia encourages all nature tourists to report any suspicious activity or human-inflicted wildlife injury to the Forest Department when traveling in Protected Areas and otherwise.
Watch video footage of the rescue, here.
