More than a million baby Olive Ridley sea turtles have started emerging from the sandy nesting grounds at Nasi-1 and Nasi-2 islets under Gahiramatha marine sanctuary of Kendrapara district and Rushikulya river mouth near Berhampur city in Ganjam district, said the divisional forest officer of Bhitarkanika National Park.
After emerging from the nests the turtle hatchlings started their journey towards the sea, said the officer. About 1.67 lakh female Olive Ridley turtles had laid eggs in the last week of March on the two islets, which cover only two km length and are surrounded by the sea for which the mortality of the baby turtles is not high here.
The female turtles drag themselves ashore, dig a nest with their back flippers, deposit about 100 eggs and conceal the nest before returning to the sea. The eggs incubate in the warm sand and the female turtles never visit their nests again to take care of the eggs or the hatchlings. They arrive at the coast in the dead of night and after laying eggs they get back into the deep-sea water. Hatchlings emerge from these eggs after 45-60 days. It is nature’s rare phenomenon that babies grow without their mother.
Informing about the mortality rate of the endangered species he said only one egg out of every 1000 laid ultimately hatch. The Ridleys had skipped the annual sojourn to the beach for laying eggs in the last two years
New Indian Express
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