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Year: 2015

Author: Kartik Shanker

Publisher: HarperCollins Litmus ISBN: 9789351772323

Pages: 360 pages

Price: $24.99 (hardcover)

This book provides a detailed account of the path to sea turtle conservation in India, from sea turtles as a fishery to highly protected species. How sea turtle conservation grew in India develops though the book as it describes the different groups in various places around the country that have unique trajectories to protecting sea turtles. The author highlighted two contrasting programs, the more state-centered conservation action in Odisha and the local non- government organization efforts in Chennai, both of which were important to the development of sea turtle conservation in India. It was interesting to compare how conservation developed in different locations, but it would have been beneficial to include some sort of map when referring to sea turtle nesting beaches to help orient the reader to the geography of India.

Once a need for conservation of sea turtles was identified at various nesting locations, the author did an excellent job summarizing all the opposing opinions on how conservation should be conducted and what different groups thought the major threats were. India faced many similar conflicts over sea turtle conservation that other parts of the world encountered, including fishery interactions, TED use and whether to allow sustainable use. The book highlights several examples of when conflict arose, including physical violence in the case of trawling fishermen and the forest department on the Odisha coast and rhetoric battles between activists, organizations, and researchers.

This book does a thorough and excellent job synthesizing many articles and publications covering sea turtle monitoring or research in India, ranging from historical documents to scientific publications and newsletter opinion pieces. The author even identified inflated writing that people sometimes used when discussing the need for sea turtle conservation. The author includes many anecdotes and quotations from various researchers when discussing their work and contributions to the field, adding colorful details as the factual information was presented. By adding the element of storytelling throughout the book, the author was able to include many field-work tales which are often interesting and exciting yet left out of more formal scientific publications. The inclusion of stories about how various researchers, the author included, became fascinated with sea turtles helps the readers connect with the people and understand how the culture shift around turtles began. The inclusion of stories also allowed the author to acknowledge the dedication of many researchers to protecting the turtles, by recounting their adventures during long monitoring efforts and dangerous encounters with disease and natural disasters.

There is a strong focus on the people and organizations involved with sea turtle conservation, and the book successfully identifies the many influential researchers and conservationists involved and often how they worked with and met one another. Identifying various connections between people was interesting but often led to many people being re-introduced several times throughout the book. I appreciated that the author included himself among the various connections and doesn’t exclude himself from the story. Both large NGOs and small sea turtle conservation groups were identified, and it was interesting to read the author’s reflections on the pros and cons of their various approaches. The author suggested some combination of national level interest groups combined with small local efforts as the best way to conserve sea turtles in India, and I found myself wanting to hear more of the authors thoughts on the future of sea turtle conservation in India.

The main critique of this book is the lack of an organized structure and that it could use rearranging of the material, either chronologically or geographically. The author reintroduces groups, people and events many times making logical flow difficult and sometimes repetitive. However, I think this book is incredibly informative while maintaining entertaining storytelling elements and successfully captures the interesting story of sea turtle conservation in India. It is an enjoyable read for anyone interested in learning more about these charismatic creatures and the people who love them in this part of the world!

Reviewed by Courtney Swink, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Laboratory, Beaufort, NC 28516, USA (E-mail: