The Turtle Girl
Elnora Heidrick
The first published mention of Viji surfaces in the September 1980 issue of Hamadryad, the newsletter of the Madras Snake Park in its early years and later Madras Crocodile Bank, when she wrote a short note on the breeding behaviour of mugger crocodiles. A September 1981 editorial mentions that she was working as a Research Associate on a project (which included checking wild scats and feeding captives) to assess the effectiveness of monitor lizards as rat predators. She had graduated by then and was working full-time at the Snake Park.
Rom remembers a clutch of Indian flapshell turtle eggs Viji had been incubating under a tin roof shed at the Croc Bank. It had already been about 300 days when Rom remembers writing them off as dead, but Viji persevered. The Irula tribals had told Viji that the sound of thunder makes turtle eggs hatch. A couple of weeks later, it rained for half an hour and on cue the eggs hatched. Viji excitedly said that there had been no thunder; the rain beating on the tin roof was what did it. It would be wonderful to learn more about this intriguing aspect of turtle behaviour.
By the end of 1982, Viji had a captive breeding group of cane turtles and Travancore tortoises established at the Croc Bank. She set up a field camp in the Nadukkani forest (a very remote and pristine forest, with the least damage wrought by fire), Kerala to study these two chelonians. It was several kilometres from the nearest Kadar village and it was a challenge to get there even on a good weather day. She lived alone in a cave, the former abode of leopards and bears, for several months at a time far from any help should anything have happened.
Ed says Viji was an excellent field biologist whose best traits were her perseverance and her ability to observe. She did not have a strong biological background to interpret the data she was collecting and Ed invited her to Eastern Illinois University to do her Masters. In September 1984, Viji left for the States to do her post graduation under Ed Moll and later returned to India to do field studies. In April 1987, she was found dead, of unknown causes, in the forest she loved; she was 28.
Ironically, as much as she crafted a facade of immense strength against the vicissitudes she faced in life, I was caught completely off guard at times by how vulnerable she really was. As a result, I grew to be secretively very protective of her; she would have rejected any overt display of this. Nature was her real family. A special family where she belonged intrinsically, it was her special, secret retreat. When she transformed this passionate calling into her profession later in life, I think she invested all her energy and emotion into this family and expected a reciprocal investment. But when she went, she perceived herself quite alone and lost; the ground beneath her feet had caved in. Unfortunately, my family and I could help little, as she was already lost in the labyrinths of that world.
As a child, she was enthralled by tales of Africa narrated by our granduncle, an army doctor who invented Bridge cards in Braille . She wrote a beautiful poem as a tribute to Africa, titled that. It featured the Serengeti and Victoria Falls and all the fauna she longed to see. She wanted to grow up in a hurry and work there. When we were in school, she collected old copies of National Geographic and made the likes of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas, Jacques Cousteau and Reinhold Messner her special heroes.
When she described the experience of an ECT prescribed by the rather conservative psychiatrist I could have ripped the man apart, limb to limb. We thanked the powers that be that cerebral lobotomy was an outdated psychiatric practise to treat mental illness by then. Despite taunts, we took the informed decision of getting her out of hospital treatment and involving ourselves actively in her therapy. My father scouted for a progressive psychiatrist and found Dr. Rudran at Schizophrenia Research Foundation. In those terrifying days, if there was an ephemeral glimpse of the Viji of old, it was when she returned from visits to the Crocodile Bank. Strangely enough, just before she was found dead after several weeks of disappearance from home, she seemed to be regaining an iota of her former confidence. She smiled more often. And then she was gone and there were only bones.
This article reminded me of the time Vijaya came to Mangalore to see if we had any Cane turtles at the Snake park we were starting here with the help of Romulas Whitakar. She even had us dig up the remains of a turtle that had died to identify it. Sadly we have very few people like her today.
An inspiring life of an young and dedicated animal lover was so well narrated by Janaki Lenin. Her sister Prabha Jagannathan has described the emotional life of her elder sister Vijaya. But for the writings of these two, many of us would not have known about Viji and her love and sacrifices for turtles and other animals. It is very unfortunate that she died at such an young age. Being a scientist and a biologist, I can understand and appreciate the dedication of viji and the sufferings she had undergone. I am sure that these 2 articles will inspire the youths to protect the animals and safeguard the environment. Hats off to Viji.
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Dear blog owner
Please help me contact Chrissy about the turtle girl she would like to sell. My mother has been looking for one ever since her father passed 30 years ago. It was something he had and she was supposed to receive as a memory of him (but never did)
She is in her last years now, and it would mean the world for her to finally see one again. I purchased one that I had found from an online source a year ago, but the seller broke it when she was packing it! Or would you consider selling the one you have?
Katy is a very special little girl.
Unlike the little girls of her age, there is only two things she likes: action movies and her turtle friend.
The thing is, when she dreams, she likes to mix them both.
Here is on of her dreams.
I think you did the right thing by sticking to your plan and returning Turtle Girl to the wild. I'm sure she's doing just fine out there. And as much as you miss her, you'll always have the wonderful memories and a great story to tell.
cheers
irena
I know what you mean about fast. My turtle when he was younger had a habit of climbing out of his bowl when I put it in the back yard. One day I just caught a glimpse of him heading out under the gate. By the time I got there I saw him go off the edge of the curb and into the street. Good thing I passed by when I did! - Margy
The river terrapin nests on sandbanks along large river courses and estuaries in the Sundarbans and Orissa. Once abundant, the reptiles were captured in such large numbers that they are highly endangered today. Photo: Romulus Whitaker.
Kadar kids hold cane turtles, a species that J. Vijaya rediscovered and spent much of her time studying and documenting. The cane turtle has recently been renamed Vijayachelys silvatica in her honour. Photo: Zai Whitaker.
Viji seen here with Brenda, Secretary of the Snake Park, at a field camp in the remote and pristine Nadukkani forests that was set up to study cane turtles and Travancore tortoises. Photo:Zai Whitaker.
Viji established a captive breeding group of cane turtles at the Croc Bank and extended the range of this rare turtle to the Neyyar Sanctuary in Kerala and Agumbe in Karnataka. Photo: Romulus Whitaker.
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This article was co-authored by Clint Bartley. Clint Bartley is a Herpetology Expert based in Chandler, Indiana. He has over 30 years of experience working with reptiles, and opened Metazotics in 2022, a large reptile breeding facility and specialty store where he oversees a breeding colony of nearly 500 reptiles. Metazotics specializes in reptiles such as colubrids, ball pythons, geckos, tortoises, and more, and serves a national audience with their state-of-the-art online merchandise platform. In particular, Clint is known as an industry leader in Asian rat snake and black rat snake mutations. Clint has successfully reproduced more than 60 species of reptiles in captivity. He was the second person in the United States to produce Archelaphe bella chapaensis (bell rat snakes), and the first person in the U.S. to produce them twice. Metazotics carries a comprehensive line of supplies and habitats, offers all bioactive enclosure needs, and works with local organizations to further their knowledge and understanding of reptiles.
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