Maharashtra Class 9 Answered

It was a beautiful sunny morning and I was enjoying my morning walk with my family on our annual vacation along the shores of Goa. This year we had chosen to visit some of the South Goa beaches in December as I wanted to see turtle nests for myself. Once a year, Goa's coastline welcomes Olive Ridley Turtles which head to the shore for nesting between November and April. Each of them lays hundreds of eggs. The incubation period takes about 40-50 days, and after that, the hatchlings return back to the sea. 

So there I set out early in the morning, in search of turtle nests, hoping to learn more about these adorable creatures. As we were walking by the shore playing with the waves, I and my younger sister saw a crowd gathered at some distance. There was a lot of commotion on the beach that early in the morning. We started walking in the direction of the crowd with our parents to check for ourselves what the problem was. 

As we made our way through the crowd, we saw the locals looking helplessly at a turtle lying motionless near a nest. It was bleeding from its nose and appeared to be in a lot of agony. On looking closer, I realised that something was stuck in the turtle’s nose. I asked the locals who were trying to pull the thing out what it was and they said that it was a piece of plastic. It could be a broken bottle or the remains of a food carton, one wouldn’t know. The locals expressed their concern over the incessant use of plastic by the tourists and the residents. Over the years, the use of plastic had increased in the restaurants and shacks near the beach. Drinks and takeaway food was served in disposable plastic packages. Despite arrangements for wet and dry waste disposal across the location, waste was thrown all over the place by people. This time, unfortunately, a piece of plastic got stuck in the turtle’s nose and it must have tried getting it out. The turtle was having trouble breathing and its nose was seriously wounded. 

Luckily animal rescue members arrived in some time and with great effort pulled the foreign body out of the turtle’s nose. My heart bled seeing the poor animal suffer so much, paying the price of the carelessness of humankind. And from that day onwards I decided never to use plastic.