Dharmaraju walks the same stretch of beach at Ramayapatana most days. Before, that walk usually ended with a net and a catch. Fishing was the livelihood he knew.

Then he found a nest. Sea turtle eggs, exposed and at risk. Predators circling, wih the sand offering no real protection. He had a choice that morning: leave it, let the weak fend for themselves as always, or do something about it.

He moved the eggs to the hatchery himself, and stayed on it. He checked sand conditions, watched for disturbance, tracking the weeks until hatching. When the Sea Turtle Protection Force formed, he joined without much deliberation. The choice had already been made on that first morning.

748 nests protected this season. 83,578 eggs. Numbers that only mean something because a man who used to walk that beach for a catch now walks it for a count, watching the tideline for a different kind of return.