KARACHI, July 13: A green turtle which got stray was rescued by a conservation activist with the help of some Nature-lovers and was safely returned to the Arabian Sea.

Baber Hussain, a turtle conservation officer of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), a non-governmental organization working for conservation of nature, on one of his early morning rounds along the Sandspit beach and mudflats between the sea and the back waters, saw a green turtle stuck up in the mudflats.

The green turtle is one of the turtle species found off the Pakistani coast and is declared endangered as it and all the other turtle species are facing extinction threat and are also protected internationally.

The green turtle had probably come out to lay eggs at the beach and after that might have lost her sense of direction, and rather than returning to the sea had travelled towards Hawkesbay-Sandspit road.

After crossing the road and, seemingly, going towards backwaters the turtle got stuck up in the mudflats. The conservationist found the turtle while it was half buried in the mud, her snout was in a puddle.

Looking at a human being approaching her, she flapped her flappers to get away, but could not get out of the mud, as she was firmly stuck, Mr Hussain said.

He said that he tried to help her back to the sea, but as the adult green turtle usually weighed at least 300 pounds plus, so he alone could not do it. He came to the road for help and luckily saw four youngsters — Uzair, Ahmad, Rizwan and Farhanullah —coming on motorcycles, whom the conservationist informed of a rare creature stuck up in the mud waiting to be rescued. The youngsters, who turned out to be Nature-lovers as well, came to the mudflat and saw the creature.

They tried to dig into the mud that was holding her, to lift the turtle, but it seemed uncomfortable for her, Mr Hussain said.

One of the youth, Uzair, spread his shawl on the ground and slowly the rescuers manoeuvred and guided the turtle on to it. Then we picked up the shawl by the corners and finally carried her to the beach near the sea water, he said.

The turtle, which had smelled the water by now, slowly dragged herself, with the help of her flippers, to the sea, the conservationist said.