Dasi Venkata Kharvi

For Dasi Venkata Kharvi, octogenarian fisherman from Maravanthe sea shore, saving turtle eggs and baby turtles is a passion, almost an obsession. He calls it his humble duty towards fellow creatures. Little does this 80-year-old unlettered man know that he is safeguarding an endangered marine species, the Olive Ridley turtle. Dasi may have single-handedly safeguarded over 10,000 turtle eggs and sent back a couple of thousand baby turtles. Like many of his fellow fishermen, he is totally in the dark about marine life cycles, but as a man of the sea, he has an innate knowledge. Kharvi said he was not fortunate enough to go to school. Harsh poverty forced him to abandon his education after Class 4. In his childhood and youth, Dasi and other fishermen would be thrilled to find turtle eggs — some turned them into a delicious snack, with bottles of toddy to wash it down. Things changed when Rajendra Tolar of Gulvady, an industrialist, told Dasi the story of the turtles, and gave him an insight into their endangered status. It turned Dasi into a saviour. Dasi, who lives with his wife Chennamma and four children — two sons and two daughters — owns country boats, and even at the ripe old age of 80, ventures into the sea to earn his bread. He has 45 cents of land, and over 50 coconut trees. “I’m a happy man now,” he sums up his life. He also keeps the forest department happy with his diligence along the sea shore. When Olive Ridley turtles come to nest on full moon nights, they shovel up 1-2 feet of sand to cover the eggs — a surefire sign of a nest. Each turtle lays 100-150 eggs, then swims out, never to return. This is where Dasi’s work begins. On his routine walks at dawn, he identifies the egg clusters and informs the forest department. They safeguard the eggs, and 52 days later, the little ones hatch. Dasi is back in action, religiously shepherding them back to the Arabian Sea. Dasi does not even know that the mother turtles may be coming from distant countries like Japan, Mexico and nearer home, Sri Lanka, to the Orissa coastline, or safe abodes in Maravanthe and other beaches, like Kodi, Gangolli, Thrasi, Madikel, Baindur and Bhatkal. On hatching, it is believed that the baby Ridleys swim back to the country of their origin. For all his good work, he neither gets, nor expects, any payment. But he has a grievance: though the forest department promised him a monthly honorarium of Rs 3,000 some years ago, he started getting the money only in the past few months. He still hasn’t got the promised cellphone, but has no regrets, and continues with his noble work, undaunted.