Olive Ridley turtles start laying eggs in Purunabandh

Olive Ridley turtles start laying eggs in Purunabandh
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

BERHAMPUR (Orissa), MAR 3: Even as the mass nesting of olive ridley sea-turtles on the Gahirmatha coast in Orissa's Kendrapara district petered out, the huge turtles have started coming in hordes to lay eggs at Purunabandh, about 45 km from here.

The turtles, who had played traunt for the last two years, have come back to this rookery, considered the second biggest after Gahirmatha, to the glee of naturalists and turtle researchers.

Purunabandha is located at the point where the Rushikulya river meets the sea in Ganjam district.

According to wildlife officials, about 1.5 lakh turtles had already come for mass nesting at Purunabandha with an estimated one lakh having laid eggs on the first day, February 28. About 40,000 turtles crawled up the sandy beach the next day.

This time the number could go upto 2.5 lakh, they said.

The avalanche of turtles also drew curious people from nearby villages. Many children even tried to ride on the slow moving turtles before being ordered out of the place by wildlife personnel.

Wildlife experts, pointing out that the gender of the hatchlings, expected to emerge after 45 to 50 days, was determined by the prevailing temperature and predicted that most of the eggs would yield females.

The turtles, who had made Gahirmatha their most favoured nesting site in the world after abandoning the Mexico coast, first came to lay eggs on a sand dune dotting six km stretch between Purunabandha and Prayagi in 1994 catapulting the little known site to international fame.

However, the site had not yet received due recognition, says senior scientist of the wildlife institute of India, Dehra Dun, B C Choudhury.

Choudhury said steps had to be taken by the authorities to protect the nesting turtles and the eggs they had hidden under the sand. Predators like stray dogs and foxes often preyed on the eggs.

According to Choudhury, an adult female turtle, after neatly excavating a chamber in the sand with its flippers, lays about 120 to 160 eggs. It then covers the eggs with sand before returning to the sea.

When the tiny hatchlings emerge, they head straight for the sea. If they escape the prying eyes of the predator animals and birds and manage to reach the surf, they survive.

After hatchlings enter the sea, virtually nothing is known about their life cycle until it becomes an adult and come back to the same beach for nesting. This period in the life of a sea turtle is known as the last year mystery, Choudhury said.

Meanwhile, a high-level meeting presided over by the revenue divisional commissioner, Jagadananda Panda, was held here on Thursday to discuss steps to extend protection to the turtles and the eggs they left behind. Activists of the Kachhap Abhijan, a NGO dedicated to protection of turtles and forest and wildlife officials attended the meeting.