Diaa Hadid, Jackie Lay/NPR
Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly collection wherein NPR’s worldwide staff shares moments from their lives and work all over the world.
India has some fairly profitable efforts to guard the olive ridley sea turtle, a vulnerable species which nests on the nation’s lengthy coastlines. Each nesting season, 1000’s of females dig holes on the seashore with their flippers, and each lays dozens of eggs inside. To maintain them secure from threats like canine and poachers, activists gather the eggs and incubate them in protected hatcheries.
After they hatch, activists gather them in tubs — like these little guys I photographed in April alongside the coast south of Mumbai — after which the infant turtles are tipped out onto the sand, to allow them to crawl into the Arabian Sea.
Tiny, gradual and clumsy — these hatchlings are a simple snack for predators. However for this one second, as they crawl into the waves, they’re protected by conservationists, who shoo away marauding crabs, seagulls and canine. Generally, vacationers could watch at a distance. And fairly rapidly, the vacationers begin cheering on the hatchlings to get into the ocean. The vacationers clap once they’re lastly in. It is like a victory for the little man, and each time I give it some thought, it makes me smile.
See extra pictures from all over the world:
- Greetings from the Negev desert, where traces remain of a vanished ancient civilization
- Greetings from the Dubai airport, where a long layover can also be a destination
- Greetings from Paris, where you can swim in the Seine for the first time in a century
- Greetings from Gujarat, India, where a banyan tree is a place for rest, prayers and play
- Greetings from Khartoum, Sudan, where those with the least offer their guests the most
- Greetings from Moscow, Russia, where Lenin’s tomb attracts a new surge of visitors
- Greetings from New Delhi, India, where performing monkeys spark delight — and ambivalence
- Greetings from Damascus, Syria, where a crowded bar welcomed post-Assad revelers
- Greetings from Alishan, Taiwan, whose red cypress forests offer timeless beauty
- Greetings from Odesa, Ukraine, where a Black Sea beach offers respite from war
- Greetings from Shenyang, China, where workers sort AI data in ‘Severance’-like ways
- Greetings from Palmyra, Syria, with its once-grand hotel named for a warrior queen
- Greetings from Mexico City, where these dogs ride a bus to and from school
- Greetings from the Galápagos Islands, where the blue-footed booby shows its colors
- Greetings from Afrin, Syria, where Kurds danced their hearts out to celebrate spring
- Greetings from Dharamshala, India, where these Tibetan kids were having the best time
