The Hindu : National : The Olive Ridleys arrive amid bleak tidings

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Friday, Feb 18, 2005

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National

The Olive Ridleys arrive amid bleak tidings

By Prafulla Das

BHUBANESWAR, FEB. 17. Even as large numbers of Olive Ridleys continue to get trapped and die in the nets of mechanised fishing boats along the Orissa coast, the annual mass nesting of the sea turtles has begun on the beaches near the Rushikulya river mouth in Ganjam district.

According to preliminary estimates, between 8 p.m. on Wednesday and 7 a.m. today more than 25,000 of them came ashore to lay eggs. The mass nesting, or arribada, is likely to continue for a few days. Around 2,00,000 of them had nested near the Rushikulya mouth last year.

According to observers, this year the nesting has begun early. During the past two years it had started on March 10.

Mass nesting, however, has not taken place at the two other major sites on the coast - the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary and the Devi river mouth - this year.

More than 5,000 of the endangered turtles have been counted dead on the beaches here this season. The highest casualty of 1,462 was reported from the Devi river mouth area. An estimated 7,000 died on these beaches last year.

Each Olive Ridley lays 120 to 150 eggs. Then it returns to the sea, covering the eggs in sand. Hatchlings emerge after 45 to 50 days.

The Olive Ridley is protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: capturing or killing it could bring three to seven years' imprisonment. Not one conviction has been recorded in Orissa though thousands of turtles are killed every year in illegal fishing.

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