By D N Singh
It is no fairy tale as many descriptions would have us believe. We were on a hovercraft which snailed and then hovered over the sea as we were heading towards an island after 45 minutes cruise. Off the Rama Chandi coast in Puri.
We reached the spot in deep sea where there were so many fishermen from whom the Navy( we were on a Naval hovercraft) was extracting some information of their need.
On our return as the craft took off at places, at times literally floating a meter or so from the sea surface through the window we were suddenly amazed to notice a specie that was new to us. Upon enquiry the Naval crew enlightened us about that strange looking specie which he said as the Mermaid, an existence more read in books or essays or recalls of some old time sea voyagers like Columbus or others.
What we could gather from the glimpse of about ten to fifteen seconds or little more, it had a very strange look like half human and half fish. It had remained mentioned in the descriptions by voyagers that, say about hundreds of years back the mermaids were no myth but a reality that mostly exist in the Eastern coasts of India.
The one we saw may have strayed from neighbouring coasts or just drifted to this part. In fact, the mermaid or dugong remained a reason behind many such recreations in paintings or stories.
Now the flip side
Of these, the most widely-known account is that of Christopher Columbus who wrote in his journal: “On the previous day [8 Jan 1493]…. distinctly saw three mermaids, which rose well out of the sea; but they are not so beautiful as they are said to be, for their faces had some masculine traits.”
Unfortunately, though the creation of imagination – the mermaid – has become a part of the mainstream narrative through visual recreation and vivid storytelling, the inspiration behind it – the dugong – has been long forgotten.
And now it is critically endangered as could be gathered from documentations those can be relatable to wildlife and the mystery behind.
Dugongs Need To Be Conserved
As records reveal, there never have been such sustained campaign like elephants or tigers and which have helped conservation.
Regardless of the campaigns by media about dugong as a timid specie and needs protection but the efforts on this has remained between far and few. This specie which loves sea grass, as said by researchers, now suffers doe to fast erosion of sea-grass due to climate change.
Now, after about two weeks since the report was released, there is just silence. Therefore, the challenge before the collective humanity is to convert this occasional and singular outcry over a particular species reaching the brink of extinction to a more sustained awareness campaign about the species, its significance and the need to protect it.
