Travel Photo ~ Mahakunta

Mahakoota

The Summers are here to stay for sometime and the best thing to do to beat the heat is to take a plunge into the pool.Here at Mahakunta people are seen taking a plunge into the Kalyani(Water tank).
Read more about Mahakunta.

Friday Travel Photo ~ Pondicherry beach

“hark, now hear the sailors cry, 

smell the sea, and feel the sky 

let your soul & spirit fly, into the mystic...” 

― Van Morrison

An early morning sunrise view and a walk along The Promenade Beach enjoying the breeze right near the French Colony is amazing when you are in Pondicherry. The color of the sea turns from Blue to Golden to Blue during the sunrise.

Weekly Photo ~ Badami Caves

Saw them first at badami caves...in their 60's (mostly) just the two of them travelling together and later at bhootnath temple further down the caves...She was struggling hard to walk ,but then they were all over the caves.He chased the monkey which attacked her at the caves before more people came to the rescue and shooed the monkey away...And then they had this antique film roll camera with them.
Read more about Badami Caves A date at the Chulukya Kingdom

Travel Photo~Goubert Avenue

The stretch of 1.5 km Promenade along the beach is where all the travellers and the tourists come when they are pondicherry. The entire stretch is seen with people walking or jogging in the morning in the fresh breeze of the sea.One of the evening in Pondicherry, saw these elderly people talking causally on the Goubert Avenue.

Weekly travel photo~Pondicherry

Colors of Pondicherry

The Olive Ridley Turtles

Dead Olive ridley turtle on the shores of Pondicherry

The Olive ridley turtles are the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world. Because of their olive colored carapace they get the name.They are best known for their unique mass nesting called Arribada(Meaning arrival in Spanish).This unique behaviour where thousands of females come together on the same beach to lay eggs increases their offspring's chances of survival.They are carnivores and feed on shrimp, snails, crabs,fishes and their eggs.
Reason for increase in the number of deaths:
Though turtles spend their entire live in the ocean they would come up every 40-45 minutes as they are air breathing reptiles and when they are entangled in trawl nets, they are dragged for over 1 to 3 hours without air which may result in their death or they are beaten to death with heavy objects or the flippers are chopped off to remove them from the nets.Government has issued various guidelines to the fishers to save these turtles and also to use Turtle Excluder Devices , a net specially designed with an exit cover which allows the turtles to escape while retaining the fish catch.

The Olive ridley turtles which are endemic to India ,Cental America and the Pacific coasts hopefully maybe protected because of the efforts of various NGOs working towards saving them.