After 10 Years Tagged Olive Ridley Returns Gahirmatha To Lay Eggs
Kendrapara, March 28: Much to the delight of the turtle lovers and researchers, the forest personnel found a tagged female olive ridley sea turtle, laying eggs at the Gahirmatha sanctuary during mass nesting.
The female turtle was tagged more than a decade ago and came to the Gahirmatha Marine sanctuary, the largest rookery of the species, on Sunday to lay eggs. This proves that tagged female turtles are finding their way to Gahirmatha, where they had laid eggs more than a decade ago.
It has also been ascertained that the turtles generally come to the favourite nesting place time and again for laying eggs at the golden beach of Gahirmatha where they earlier laid eggs, DFO of Rajnagar Mangrove forest (Wildlife)Division Jangyadatta Pati said on Monday.
It may be noted here that the state forest department in collaboration with Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, fixed tags on the flippers of the turtles between 1998 and 2010. Sea turtles are also tagged to recognise individuals or cohorts for research purposes.
Tagging is most often done to obtain information on their reproductive biology, movements and growth rates. Sea turtles throughout the world are known to migrate thousands of kilometres between their nesting beaches and feeding grounds. The tagging helps researchers study the turtle’s migratory route and areas of foraging.
Tagging data also shows how the turtles navigate waters across different areas. Information was lacking about the movement of the turtles after they leave the Odisha coast after laying eggs. Hence, the tagging and satellite telemetry was carried out to track their movements and enhance the protection of their habitats. So the forest personnel with the help of WII researchers had fitted tags on several endangered olive ridley turtles in all the three major nesting sites — Gahiramatha, Rushikulya and Devi river mouth to know their movement.
According to Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary Ranger Debashis Bhoi around 4.95 lakhs female Olive Ridley sea turtles have so far laid eggs at their favourite nesting place of Nasi II within Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary in the last 72 hours.
