Locals joined forces on Saturday (February 21) to rescue an enormous female turtle that had become stranded on a beach in southern India after laying its eggs.

Residents of Nanthiravilla village in Tamil Nadu spotted the 200-kilogramme reptile stuck in the sand.

A police constable managed to loop a rope around the turtle's shell and he and a group of youngsters hauled the stricken creature back to the water where it swam off swiftly.

The beaches of Tamil Nadu are an important nesting site for several turtle species, including the endangered olive ridley turtle.

Female tortoise leave oceans and come shore to lay eggs once in a year. On one such incident in Nanthiravilla a village of Kanniyakumari district a 200 kilograms of Giant female tortoise came to the shores. But it went long away from the shore and was struck in sand. Bystanders just saw the struggling tortoise and decided to help her. A constable who belong to that area noticed the tortoise the crowd and with the help of the area youngsters tied a rope at the back side of the tortoise.

They pulled the tortoise back to the shores and once it reached the shore it swam into the water swiftly.