One of nature’s enduring mysteries is how these little creatures, Olive Ridley turtle hatchlings, hardly three inches in length, can remember the shores they are born at and return to it as a mature adult some 20-25 years later.
A clutch of tiny frail-looking animals ventured, for the first time, into the Bay of Bengal, nudged on by helping hands here on Thursday morning before the sun rose in the East.
Chairperson of the Blue Cross and actor Amala Akkineni, along with District Collector N. Yuvaraj, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests R. G. Kalaghatgi, and Additional PCCF Pratheep Kumar watched with concern and helped a few of the hatchlings that overturned after their release from a wicker basket by staff of the Forest Department from a hatchery on the Ramakrishna Beach.
The animals were released before dawn to ensure that they would have covered some distance into the sea before daybreak, and thus protect them from the swooping birds of prey.
The hatchlings crawled into the water and rode the receding waves to make their first entry into the Bay.
The staff, with the help of volunteers, track the eggs laid by Olive Ridley turtles on the beach and shift them immediately to a protected hatchery. Later, the hatchlings are released into the sea.
The challenge is to ensure that the just-laid eggs are transferred immediately without damaging them, and then the hatchery also should be nearby to ensure that the climatic conditions remain unchanged. The eggs and the hatchlings have to be protected from predators like stray dogs and birds of prey. The Collector, who is a veterinary doctor, has suggested to the Forest Department to explore the use of artificial incubation facility as soil moisture is a major factor influencing the hatching process.
‘No nesting area’
Olive Ridley turtles nest all along the State coastline. However, there is no single mass nesting area in the State. The Forest Department has established 32 Olive Ridley hatcheries along the coast.
“This year, so far, the department has recovered 2,61,952 turtle eggs and released 71,268 hatchlings into the sea,” Chief Conservator of Forests (Wild Life) K. Ramesh has said.
In the district, there are two hatcheries — one at Ramakrishna Beach and the other at Jodugullapalem beach. From these two places, 12,000 eggs have been retrieved from the nests and 5,430 hatchlings released into the sea so far this year.
