Ninja Turtles of the east coast

The Olive Ridley sea Turtles are an endangered breed of Marine turtles. Marine turtles unlike terrestrial ones can't cocoon themselves in their shells while sensing danger. They have to face the harsh realities of the deep seas and often end up becoming food for the bigger sea creatures in the marine food chain. One baby turtle in every 1000 that hatch survives into adulthood and may end up in the same rookery where she was born to lay her eggs.

Worldwide nesting sites of Olive Ridleys

Olive Ridley Sea Turtle

Green Sea Turtle

Hawksbill Turtle

Every year my family and I have visited the mass nesting (Arribada in Spanish) site of Rushikulya, not very far from our home. Its a sight to savor, to see lakhs of Olive Ridleys emerge from the Bay of Bengal to build (dig) their nests and lay their 100+ eggs per mother per nest, cover them up with their powerful flippers and depart to the sea, never to see their offsprings again. [what a relationship!!! my mom would go insane if I'm out of her sight for a day :( lolz ]

The story of their lives starts here:

Mating Olive Ridleys

The males never come to the beach and stay in water. After a few weeks of mating, the females come to "safe-deposit" their eggs. The Turtles are indeed intelligent creatures. The mothers will be waiting for the right winds and will only then come to the beach to lay their eggs. They know that if there are no winds the trail left by their flippers would not be levelled and the flipper-prints will invite a host of predators like dogs and jackals to prey on the eggs.

Olive Ridleys emerging from the Bay of Bengal to Rushikulya

Thats me and my friend.

After making the nest

Laying the eggs

Covering the nest with sand

Mass Nesting (Arribada)

After nesting, the eggs incubate in the warm sand for around 50 days before the hatchlings start to emerge- force themselves out of each nest by the hundreds. The beach looks like an intricately woven carpet of fast moving- large sized beetles (baby turtles) :)

Hatchlings come out of their nests and move towards the sea.

Many a time, the babies get attracted to light and plantation and head in the wrong direction and hence have to be redirected to the sea by volunteers and conservationists i.e. Humans- Poor Turtles where would they have gone had we not intervened :) lolz)

Local village kids helping in the "rescue and relief" operation :)

Many Turtles get entangled in fishing nets and die a gory death. Marine turtles unlike fish don't have gills and have to comeout to the surface to breathe. Unfortunately fishing trawalers aren't equipped with turtle excluder devices (TED) from which they can escape but fish cant. :( Though govt had made it mandatory to use TEDs they are not implemented in this area.

Turtle Excluder Device

Poor fella got entangled in the locally made fishing net.

The major threat they face at Rushikulya is the the receding beach. The sea is gobbling up the land and their nesting habitat [Beach erosion]. It is believed that climate change has been the prime cause in sea level rise. A perpetual cynic like Greenpeace believes that numerous port constructions along the 480 km Orissa coastline would completely devastate their habitat. And they try to prove what they believe. Personally I feel they'll continue to nest and wont be bothered by the ports a few 10s of Kms away. Rookeries coexist peacefully alongside ports in USA, Carribean and Brazil.

There is progressive erosion of Orissa's..errrr Odisha's beaches

An uphill task for securing her bloodline...thanks to the erosion caused by climate change.

Mangrove afforestation helps prevent erosion of the beach. Students have got involved.

THREATS
There are predators and scavengers out there. Life is too uncertain for them :( and so also for us.

Very Unfortunate........Rest in Peace. Amen!!!

Turtles that die in the sea get washed off to the shore and "every dog has his day"

Sometimes the sea is the biggest predator of the nests. A high tide can wash away millions of eggs.

AWARENESS FOR CONSERVATION:

The Rushikulya Sea turtle protection Committee takes active role in creating awareness among villagers and students about the endangered species. The volunteers also act as guides to visiting tourists. They have named their endeavor "Operation Kacchapa".

Interpretation Centre at Rushikulya(Puranabandha) run by the RSTPC helps create awareness.

Workshops are conducted in schools and during the Gopalpur Beach festival.

School Children have their own means to spread awareness.

RSTPC's Billboards in the Villages

How to go there:The Rushikulya Rookery is situated near Ganjam town in southern Orissa.Spread over 5 kms,the nesting site is east of National Highway 5 ,running between Kolkata and Chennai.You can hire auto rickshaws from the railway station or bus stop at Ganjam and go through tiny villages of Purunabandha,Palibandha or Gokhurkuda to reach the sandy rookery