The Hindu Business Line : Lucky lot in safe haven

Late lunches followed by a snooze make for an ideal Sunday though rarely does it come to pass. The onion sambar may just be a touch salty or the avial a wee bit watery for the lunch to be less than satisfying. But for the sake of a peaceful Sunday, one always applauds the food served by Rema. If you have the courage to speak up (one never had it), she will remind you a housewife has no Sundays. "So, just eat what I make or take the trouble to cook," is the lady's general line of attack and which is best avoided.

When the lunch is near-delightful, phone calls turn the snooze imperfect and there is nothing worse than a dissatisfied snooze. It rankles the whole week. Last Sunday, my good friend Rushikesh Chavan called to ask whether one wanted to see the starred tortoise (Geochelone elegans). One said yes and met Rushi at the gates of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (Borivili National Park) at about two in the afternoon.

We walked a while into the Park, past the forest space with white and natural tigers struggling in cages, to a spot where a few youngsters led by Mayur Kamath, were trying their best to bring back to life some 700 to 800 starred tortoises. Some two to three months ago, the customs department at the Sahar International Airport nabbed a few tightly packed parcels of starred tortoises headed to Malaysia. They contacted the forest department, Mayur and Rushi who agreed to rescue the lot, belonging to the group of land tortoises.

According to the Book of Indian Reptiles and Amphibians by J.C. Daniel, all land tortoises are grouped under a single family, the Testudinidae. Land tortoises are largely herbivorous and are seen in the warmer parts of the earth. The starred tortoise is fairly common in the sandy tracts of the coastal scrublands of the Ramanathapuram district in Tamil Nadu and the semi-arid and desert tracts of peninsular India. It is also found in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, and the Kolar district in Karnataka. "Its status in wetter areas is not clear," Daniel writes.

The young group, going by the name of Wildlife Images & Reflections, has been given a room adjacent to the tiger cages to rear the 700-800 tortoises. The floor of the room, carpeted with newspapers, has been split into various compartments with the critically ill kept away from the less critically ill and the healthy members.

On Sunday, Pradeep Dalvi was giving them their Sunday wash and scrub, while Rushi and Ketan Vaidya chopped vegetables like carrots, tomatoes and coriander as the crowd daily consumes about 10 kg of raw vegetables. The forest department has been bearing the cost of the vegetables bought from the wholesale market at Dadar. Mayur Kamath, Rushi and Dr Kishor Batwe, the vet at the Park, have been searching the Internet on the diseases afflicting this variety. Every Sunday, the tortoises are measured, weighed and the details put down in a register. "Over the last three months we have gathered data on this species, which could help researchers," remarked Rushi. "When they came they were too small and some died. But we seem to have passed the critical point," thought Mayur.

The healthy ones crawl all over the place, climbing over each other and one held them to note the yellow streaks radiating on the black background of the carapace, giving them the star-like appearance. Walking on newspapers they emit a thin rustle and Mayur says they also whistle.

On Sunday, three died and a young volunteer dug a deep hole in the earth to inter them vertically, one upon the other, with a bit of soil separating them. Medicines are mixed with the juices drained from the vegetables and sprayed over the food. "They do not seem to like the smell of medicines and so we mix them with the juices," Mayur explained. The shredded vegetables are placed on small rubber sheets and the tortoises speed up to be at the dinner table. "All of them first consume the carrots and tomatoes with the red colour attracting them," Rushi said. But the sick have to be force fed.

The group has been tending the animals every morning and evening with 28-year-old Mayur taking a heavy load, having to run a small plastics factory in the Western suburbs during the day. "Without the factory, I will not be able to fund the rescue effort," said Mayur, an engineer; others also chip in with funds they can spare.

The room is well lit as the tortoises tend to bask under the electric bulbs. One tortoise is all white in colour, while another is the size of a Penguin paperback. He is a nervous type and is still on the sick list though he moves around withdrawing his head and neck at any disturbance. In another three months, the group hopes to have on hand a healthy population for release in Andhra Pradesh or Kutch, says Mayur.

The starred tortoises have for company a massive white tiger with a skin disease, growling all the five hours one spent at the spot. It is sad to see the white tiger, named Bajirao, pacing round and round the steel cage staring at an imprisoned normal tiger, Shiva, rescued from a circus.

Nearby, in a small cage is locked up an abandoned small Indian civet with a rusty spotted cat staring at you from yet another wooden prison. And wildlife laws do not allow for caged animals in a National Park.

P. Devarajan

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