Meet the turtle woman on the banks of Chandragiri
By Kanishka Puri
| Posted on December 5, 2024
Native to South and Southeast Asia, Cantor’s giant softshell turtle or Asian giant softshell turtle (Pelochelys cantorii) is a large freshwater turtle classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red list. Considering its conservation status, it is truly commendable that researcher Ayushi Jain (28) has been working for the last five years to protect this turtle, locally known as bhimanama, on the banks of River Chandragiri in Kerala’s Kasaragod district.
Jain was instrumental in building a network of over 40 local community members who report along the 10 km area of the Chandragiri for turtles. To build up the research, she engaged with more than 200 people of the community and interviewed them multiple times.
Hatchlings of Pelochelys cantorii from a protected nest
It did not come easy for Jain, who is at present pursuing PhD at the University of Miami, studying policies that impact local communities and turtles, formulating what can be done to partition the resources between the community and the biodiversity. She is also a National Geographic explorer.
She grew up in a traditional household in Uttar Pradesh, where only men were given importance. Yet, she navigated her way out of the conventions and completed her bachelor’s degree in zoology from Dayalbagh Educational Institute in Agra and master’s in ecology and environmental science from Pondicherry University.
“I was interested in gharials at first,” says Jain, who was introduced to freshwater turtles during an internship in 2016 at a turtle conservation organisation. “When I went there, I realised that I did not know anything about freshwater turtles. I had never seen one in my life. And I was 20 years old.”
Ultimately, the interest in softshell turtles got the better of her. She proposed a project for the EDGE of Existence programme, maybe because so little was known about the concept of soft-shelled turtles.
Research with Edge
Jain became an Edge Fellow in 2019. The Edge of Existence programme chooses early-career conservationists from lower and middle income countries working towards the conservation of species in their country, with a focus on animals that are globally endangered and evolutionarily very unique, to support their endeavours.
“My mentor at the time reached out to me in the second year of my master’s and asked if I would be interested in applying. I said, ‘definitely!’ Cantor’s giant softshell turtle always fascinated me, but I did not know a lot about it. When I started reading, I realised there was nothing available. It was a very risky project. But the good thing about Edge fellowship was that it allowed me to explore different pathways. It was not just focused on finding the turtle, but doing everything else too, like gathering more information by working with communities or understanding the genetics of the species,” Jain says.
The fellowship began with a four-week training in the Borneo, where Jain paired up with her mentor Francoise Cabada-Blanco, a marine freshwater specialist. They discussed the project plan and prepared for the best outcome. The best outcome was to record historical sightings from the community and the worst was no findings at all. Little did they know that nature had other plans.
An adult Pelochelys cantorii
Their bond grew on a field adventure after they almost died in a river and saved each other’s life. Jain shares, “During one of our day offs, we all decided to take a dip in a river in the Danum Valley. I was not exactly a pro swimmer. I barely knew how to keep afloat. But I was feeling a bit adventurous, so I ventured a little further into the river. However, I did not realise that the river had quite a current. Before I knew it, I was being swept away, unable to control my direction. I had no control over myself and I thought I was going to die that day. Fran spotted me, thankfully. She swam behind and held me tight, right before I was about to crash into the rock. So yes! Fran has been my guardian angel ever since.”
Jain belongs to the rare breed of scientists founding startups. Here, too, women are a minuscule minority worldwide. In biotech, however, the numbers are growing compared to other industries in India, with 33 per cent women entrepreneurs (about 1,000). Although the proportion of female co-founded companies has doubled in the last 10 years, only three per cent of investment goes to them globally. “We have received zero funding from the government even after eight years in business,” she pointed out.
Franciose highlights that the fellowship required conservationists to include a social component in the project and work alongside communities. “Jain struggled with letting go of the fact that she would not be doing a traditional ecological survey in her project. She would just be talking to and interviewing people. But once she got into it, she just excelled.”
Long-term conservation results are directly proportional to understanding the human-wildlife equation and reforming it. “I only had training in zoology and ecology. I did not know the human side of things…Conservation is not just about the animal, it is also about the people. I think for a turtle so rare and elusive, the information you can get from the community is unmatched, honestly,” Jain said.
Navigating fieldwork
In the beginning, people did not take her seriously during field visits to the Neyyamkayam and Bovikanam villages in Kasaragod district. They would interact with Jain’s husband and her local interns who were there to support her with translation.
“I very quickly learned that these people grew up very differently. For them to even accept a 23-year-old girl and entertain her was like a big thing… I needed to make them trust me,” Jain shares.
Initially, they did not know why Jain was looking for the cantor’s turtle. They thought she wanted to buy one. She even offered some monetary incentives to begin the search. Later on, she and her team conducted workshops to make the community understand their objective. Soon, somebody called her and informed that they had found a turtle.
“I went there, my hands shivering. In my head I thought I was not going to see the turtle because nobody had seen it for such a long time. I did not know what to do. I had not made a plan. I called my adviser,” Jain recalls. Her adviser guided her to measure the turtle and look for any injuries.
The locals had caught the turtle in the tank. As they put the tank down, Jain tried to hold on to the turtle and it pulled her with it towards the river. “It was so fast and heavy. They were all men surrounding me, and I was just a puny woman holding onto the turtle. I put my knees on the back of the turtle to stop it. Like, all of my body weight was on a turtle. At that moment, it pulled me with it for at least 20 m,” describes Jain.
Examining an adult individual of Pelochelys cantorii which had died following an impact with the dam channels.
Relocating inundated nest of Pelochelys cantorii along the Chandragiri river.
A path of her own
In 2022, filmmaker Vijay Bedi approached Jain to film an episode for Science in Action, a series by RoundGlass Sustain, about her work with the Asian giant softshell turtle. “It is not easy to spot the turtle. I have not been able to spot it more than twice,” says Jain, about the challenges in filming.
Luckily, there was a nest where hatching was likely. “I asked if he wanted to film that, because that has not been filmed so far anywhere in the world,” she recalls.
Jain left for Chennai as the field season was over. Shortly after, one of her community partners informed her that the eggs were going to hatch soon. Jain immediately called Bedi, but he could not make it. Instead, she was joined by Bahar Dutt and team, who directed the episode, Science in Action: Saving the Bhimanama | Ayushi Jain and a Giant Turtle.
As her journey progressed, Jain finally spoke up against the sexual harassment she faced on the field while interning, by sharing it on Women of the Wild – India, an online community. It followed an outpouring of support.
“People reached out, and not just women, even men… A lot of people, including the online platform owner Akanksha Sood Singh, made sure that I connected to a lawyer. She told me that she is there through and through if something happens… I do believe that when you have multiple women around you, you tend to have more strength,” Jain says.
“The filmmakers were very supportive of my only condition to involve the community members… It brought a lot of limelight to the community, which helped me to continue with the network and make people self-reliant. It was a good opportunity to showcase what the community had done,” she adds.
The filmmakers went on to win the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards.
Ayushi with officials from the Kasaragod District Forest Department, community leaders and network members after a hatchling release event
About the author
Kanishka Puri is a writer, photographer and up-and-coming documentary filmmaker. Her photo story titled ‘Reclamation by the Sea’, about the first women lifeguards of Goa, was awarded the Honourable Mention in MMEG’s second annual photo competition in 2022. She is committed to shaping narratives of intersectionality focused on gender.
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