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Photo: S. Subramanium

Speaking up: Widlife filmmaker Mike Pandey.

The 10-eyed, space ship-shaped horseshoe crab, a species that is a relative of the scorpion and the spider, is a fascinating shallow water creature.

Capturing the creature in all its singularity is the film ‘Timeless Traveller – The Horseshoe Crab,’ produced by India’s eminent environment, wildlife conservationist and filmmaker Mike H. Pandey.

The 22-minute version of the film is a well-made science and wildlife documentary that brings to the fore the laboratory research conducted on the species as also the crab in its natural environs. The blood of the crab, which is white on extraction and turns blue on exposure to air, showing the presence of copper, is used in the medical field against bacterial contamination in drugs, vaccines and medical devices, and in surgeries. The film points out that after the blood of the crab is drawn out, the crab is released back into the waters, and in 24 hours the blood is regenerated.

But the crab is under a severe threat today. “What existed along large parts of our Eastern coastline along the Sundarbans Delta and Orissa, has now got restricted to just one small pocket of Balasore and is rapidly declining,” reveals Pandey.

What threatens the crab? Habitat loss and erosion of the shore line has contributed in a big way. “Besides, the practice of local fishermen scraping their nets right to the sea bed results in the inedible crab getting caught in the net and dying,” says Pandey. The crab is also supposedly being smuggled in truck loads. It is poignant to hear Pandey say, “When I went to film in Orissa, I was offered a tractor load of crabs at Re.1 a piece, and even at 50 paisa a piece.”

It is ironical that what Nature and the ravages of time did not mutate or evolve, let alone wipe out, “man in his ignorance has brought it to the brink of extinction in just a few decades.”

The film also reveals that enzymes and proteins obtained from the crab could “rewrite pages of medical history.”

How? Pandey explains that research conducted by the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) suggests that the crab could hold the key to creating path breaking cures for diseases such as cancer and ischemic heart disease, and reversal of such conditions as diabetes, osteoporosis and eye degeneration.

Says Anil Chatterji, scientist, NIO, “Patents for these findings have been filed with the U.S. Patent Office, and the patents are pending. It takes two to three years for them to be awarded.”

But meanwhile damage is being done by the day, and irreparable at that. “Local communities need to be educated and sensitized,” says Pandey. More importantly, the government needs to take the issue seriously. After all, if the crab is not protected by the law, activities like smuggling it or killing it do not fall within the ambit of illegal activities and are therefore not punishable. Pandey bemoans that government departments and agencies which need to buy the film are not buying it.

The passionate filmmaker asks vociferously why in spite of the NIO’s work in the area, the Ministry of Environment & Forests is supposedly also engaged in “research and survey work” related to the crab thereby delaying legislation.

And the pain in the conservationist’s voice is palpable as he says: “Will we wake up when the species has disappeared?”

Who is accountable? And who will speak up? The horseshoe crab for one will not speak up.

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