OLIVE RIDLEY TURTLES

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Context: As a record number of 4.92 lakh Olive Ridley turtles have crawled to the Rushikulya coast in Odisha, scientists have tagged more than 6,000 turtles to gather more information about their breeding behaviour and migration.

• The metal tags affixed to turtles are non-corrosive and they do not harm their body. The metal can be removed later.
• The tags are uniquely numbered containing details such as name of organisation, country-code and email address.
• If researchers in other countries come across the tagged turtles, they could email their location in longitude and latitude.

 

Significance:

• It would reveal the inter-rookery movement of turtles in Odisha.
• The migration pattern to other countries would be recorded in detail.

 

Olive Ridley

• The Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) is listed as vulnerable under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red list.
• All five species of sea turtles found in India are included in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and in the Appendix I of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which prohibits trade in turtle products by signatory countries.               

 

Threats to Olive Ridley turtles

• Three main factors that damage Olive Ridley turtles and their eggs —
  • heavy predation of eggs by dogs and wild animals
  • indiscriminate fishing with trawlers and gill nets, and
  • beach soil erosion.
• Dense fishing activity along the coasts of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal, especially ocean-going trawlers, mechanised fishing boats and gill-netters pose a severe threat to turtles.

 

Nesting habits

• The Olive Ridley has one of the most extraordinary nesting habits in the natural world, including mass nesting called
• The 480-km-long Odisha coast has three arribada beaches at Gahirmatha, the mouth of the Devi river, and in Rushikulya, where about 1 lakh nests are found annually.
• More recently, a new mass nesting site has been discovered in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with more than 5,000 nests reported in a season.

 

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/record-nesting-of-olive-ridley-turtles-on-rushikulyacoast/article65281558.ece#:~:text=%E2%80%9COn%20the%20Day%206%20of,Officer%2C%20Berhampur%2C%20Amlan%20Nayak