Balaji Vedharajan - Palk Bay in My Perception

See the kid's face...thrill and enthusiasm while holding my underwater camera few days ago. Why not it can be a lead to a passion in conservation near future? We initiated an exclusive seagrass awareness in Palk Bay since October 2012. Our team visits local schools and then invite the students to our centre for field trip. A total number of 2,740 students have attended our events since October 2012 until March 2013. We aimed to reach six thousand students before the end of 2013. Besides several environmental threats caused to seagrass meadows of Palk Bay due to ignorance, poor law enforcement and globalization, our organization believes that a continuous rapport and commitment in grassroots education and awareness can positively change the present situation. I personally found such enthusiasm and passion among school students to conserve it, after I showed my underwater photographs of local marine life. This positive approach is leading towards a participatory resear...

Villagers of Velivayal informed us about a marine mammal washed ashore on the coast. OMCAR team visited the site at 8.15 am and later informed local forest department, marine police department and media. This village is located in Thanjavur District, Tamil Nadu, India. The specimen was decayed and the surface was oily. We measured the length of the specimen (nose tip to tail), which was about 8.4 feet. The distance between nose tip and the dorsal fin was 64 cm.  The specimen photos were taken and immediately shared with Marine Mammals Group in Facebook and Yahoo groups to request identification.  Dr. Dipani Sutaria and Dr. Ranil Nanayakkara have identified the dolphin species through yahoo groups immediately.  Additional documents given by Dr. Dipani Sutaria, was printed out in English, and translated in to Tamil was given to local forest department, marine police department, Navy and media in order to create awareness about this species and conservation of its hab...

மீனவர்களுடன் கடல் தாழைகள் வளர்ந்துள்ள இடங்களுக்கு கடற்பயணம்  Riding in Palk Bay with fishers to demonstrate underwater research techniques கடல் தாழை ஆய்வு முறைகள் பற்றிய விளக்கவுரை  கிராம குழந்தைகளுடன் களக்கலந்துரையாடல்   கடலுக்கடியில் வைக்கப்படும் மீன் ஆய்வு கருவியை பற்றி கடற்படை அதிகாரிகளுக்கு விளக்கி கூறுதல்  கடல் தாழைகளை ஆராய்ச்சி செய்யும் நீரடி ஒலிக்கருவிகளை பற்றி விளக்குதல்   கடலில் உள்ள மிதவை உயிரிகளை காண வரிசையில் நிற்கும் சிறார்கள் 

Conservation Benefits Community       Any kind of coastal ecosystem restoration can be successful, only if it can support sustainable livelihood of local community by potentially contributing.  Our pilot mangrove restoration sites have proved that crab population increased with the increase of mangrove cover in restoration sites.  However, not all our coastal community in Palk Bay directly depends on mangrove associated fishery along the coast.  Mangrove assoicated fishery is more common in the villages around Muthupet Mangrove Reserve forest.   There is a small population of tribal community living adjacent to our mangrove restoration site, have been catching mangrove crabs, shrimps and fishes.  They have no complex, expensive fishing gears and crafts.  Both men and women do fishing in creeks and mangrove swamp.  Women used to sit in the muddy mangrove waters to catch shrimps by hands, while men dig pit to catch crabs. ...