From Soup to Superstar : The Story of Sea Turtle Conservation along the Indian Coast

Kartik Shanker was inspired to a career in ecology by an ancient reptile, a sea turtle that crawled ashore late one night in Madras (now Chennai). As faculty at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, he now indulges in his fascination for ecology and evolution, working with students on frogs, reptiles, birds, plants, reef fish and other marine fauna. But that initial encounter with the turtle, an olive ridley, hooked him for life. In the twenty-five or so years since then, he has helped establish a students’ group for sea turtle conservation in Chennai, conducted research on olive ridleys in Odisha and leatherback turtles in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, started newsletters and websites, conducted international symposiums on sea turtles, and established regional and national networks for coastal and marine conservation. He has also served as the president of the International Sea Turtle Society and regional vice-chair of the IUCN/SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group. Shanker is a founding trustee of Dakshin Foundation, which works largely with coastal communities on natural resource conservation and management, and a founding editor of the magazine, Current Conservation. In his spare time, he seeks to distract young minds from more serious pursuits with books such as Turtle Story and The Adventures of Philautus Frog. Kartik loves hanging out in the islands, diving at reefs and looking for turtles, a passion that he shares with his family. At home, in Bengaluru, sadly, he is a slave to Meera, Vishak and two cats, which leaves little time for important activities like playing the guitar, basketball and going to the gym.