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Rekawa, beyond Tangalle way down south, earlier notorious for its trade in turtles, both live creatures and eggs, is set to be placed on Sri Lanka’s map as the first wildlife sanctuary to be declared for reptiles.

“This will be the first sanctuary in the country dedicated to reptiles along with Godawaya a little distance away,” said Deputy Director Vasantha Rathnayake who handles ‘Protected area development and management’ at the Department of Wildlife Conservation.

The papers with the declaration under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance have been sent to Environment Minister Maithripala Sirisena for signature, he said, adding that it is appropriate in this Year of the Turtle that Sri Lanka strengthen its protection mechanisms for turtles which are an endangered species. “In March, the department in association with IUCN, the World Conservation Union, issued the ‘Marine Turtle Conservation Strategy and Action Plan of Sri Lanka.”

Of the seven species of marine turtles found in the world, five visit Rekawa regularly. The environment of Rekawa, with its mangroves, long stretch of beach and coral reefs is the ideal lure for the Green turtle, the Olive Ridley turtle, the Leatherback turtle, the Loggerhead turtle and the Hawksbill turtle. The other two species – Flatback and Kemp’s Ridley – are found around the continental shelf of Australia and in the Gulf of Mexico respectively.

Although turtles nest right along the coastal stretch of Sri Lanka, surveys have recorded that the highest nesting density is in Rekawa, with more than 800 nests being found every year.

Not so long ago, however, Rekawa, the unspoilt coastal beauty spot of the south was a place these ungainly, lumbering and harmless giants, throwbacks to the dinosaur era, if they knew better, would dared not have come to nest and lay their eggs.
“Then all the eggs that were laid by the turtles that frequented Rekawa beach were collected by the villagers and sold. In the 1970s, the villagers had been capturing most of the nesting females, keeping them in kotuwas constructed in the shallow sea water and sending lorryloads of live turtles to the north because their meat is considered a delicacy in those areas,” explains Thushan Kapurusinghe, the man behind the Turtle Conservation Project (TCP).

The Hawksbill turtle too dubbed critically endangered and the most beautiful had been slaughtered mainly for its shell which is turned into expensive ornaments, jewellery and combs.
“Those days 40-50 turtles would come to nest per night during the peak season, only about 10-15 do so these days,” Thushan says.

Now, that reputation of Rekawa has changed forever and the villagers have turned conservationists – turtle egg-hunters becoming nest protectors.
How did the turnaround come about? It started off with a letter written by a Sri Lankan to the environmental group, Care for the Wild, based in Britain that turtle slaughter was rampant in Sri Lanka, with a plea that something be done to save them.

This was in 1993 and Care for the Wild sent three zoologists headed by Peter Richardson to check out the veracity of the claim. The team landed in Sri Lanka with little funding, and not knowing whom to contact on this literally untouched subject in Sri Lanka, headed for the Zoo. They wanted a youth group to help them study turtles.

That was when Thushan linked up with them for he was then the Instructor of the Mammals’ Group of the Young Zoologists’ Association. Thereafter began the long and tiring trek along the beach, from Colombo to Bundala, to identify turtle nesting areas. “All along there was turtle nesting but we identified three important areas of nesting. They were Bundala, Rekawa and Kosgoda,” he says explaining that Bundala being a Ramsar site and National Park there was protection for these marine creatures, while Kosgoda had turtle hatcheries in which there was also some kind of protection for turtles, though ex-situ.

Realizing the critical need to protect Rekawa’s turtles, Thushan and a few volunteers got together and began their arduous task of changing the mindset of the villagers who were not only involved in the turtle issue but also coral mining and cutting down of mangroves, while providing them with more sustainable ways of feeding their families. “We secured the first grant from NORAD for our work in 1995. Later funding came from UNDP’s GEF-SGP,” he says.

The TCP in collaboration with the Department of Wildlife Conservation also turned the spotlight on the importance of Rekawa through wildlife and National Aquatic Resources Agency (NARA) reports and also newspaper and scientific papers.
In 2005, the department, TCP, NARA, Coast Conservation Department and IUCN, demarcated the boundaries of the proposed sanctuary.