Museum of Goa hosts Turtle Walker screening; discussion flags coastal threats to sea turtles
~ The discussion that followed the MOG Sunday talk flagged light pollution, fishing nets and urban pressures on turtle nesting along India’s coast.
~ Turtle Walker director Taira Malaney said that conservation must be viewed holistically through a community lens, rather than from an animal-protection perspective alone.
Panaji, February 2026: The philosophy of conservation needs to actively involve communities and cannot be reduced to merely protecting animals, according to filmmaker Taira Malaney, whose documentary Turtle Walker was screened as part of a recent MOG Sunday event at the Museum of Goa in Pilerne, attended by members of Jnana Foundation.
Along Goa’s fragile coastline—where nesting beaches intersect with tourism, fishing livelihoods and everyday human presence—sea turtle survival is as much a social question as a scientific one. Drawing from examples in Turtle Walker, director Taira Malaney stressed that community members were central to the documentary’s protagonist, marine biologist Satish Bhaskar’s decades-long surveys. Local communities helped locate nesting sites, navigate difficult terrain and gather field data.
“Real conservation needs to involve communities. It cannot be purely about protecting the animal,” she said. These concerns framed an impact-focused screening of the documentary Turtle Walker, hosted by the Museum of Goa (MOG) on Saturday, with participation from Jnana Foundation members, followed by an audience interaction with Malaney and creative producer Saif Khan.
The film documents Bhaskar’s extensive surveys of sea turtle nesting beaches along India’s coastline and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, undertaken largely from the late 1970s onwards. His work led to the identification of several previously undocumented nesting sites and laid the foundation for long-term sea turtle conservation efforts in the country.
Responding to questions from the audience, Malaney spoke about the pressures sea turtles face along more urbanised coastlines, beginning with artificial lighting. “When hatchlings emerge, they use the light of the moon to find their way back to the sea,” she said, explaining that streetlights and beachfront illumination often cause hatchlings to move inland instead, significantly increasing mortality. She added that human activity along developed beaches further disrupts nesting behaviour.
“Noise, crowds and daytime activity can easily dissuade adult turtles from nesting, and they often return to the sea without laying eggs,” Malaney said. In such environments, she noted, hatchlings also face threats from stray dogs and poaching, which are not natural predators.
Malaney also referred to fishing-related risks, noting that turtles are often caught in nets while mating offshore. She said that turtle exclusion devices (TEDs), which allow turtles to escape from fishing nets, do exist, but added that “their implementation in India is still uncertain and uneven.”
She further referred to conservation measures currently in place along the state’s coastline, citing hatcheries managed by the Forest Department at beaches such as Morjim, Agonda and Galgibag. “Nests are often relocated to protected areas to reduce losses from human disturbance and predation,” she explained.
Creative Producer Saif Khan said the film was developed alongside an impact campaign aimed at extending engagement beyond screenings. “Storytelling can have an impact at multiple levels, but it needs to be combined with on-ground work,” he said. Khan outlined initiatives supported by the campaign, including assistance to marine mammal stranding networks in Goa and Karnataka, marine conservation education programmes and efforts to address threats such as abandoned fishing nets.
Further screenings and outreach activities are planned as part of the film’s ongoing impact campaign, which runs alongside its public screening sessions and festival circuit.
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