BREEDING OF TURTLES
On leap day the mass nesting of ridley sea turtles started at Odisha’s Gahirmatha Marine sanctuary in Kendrapada district. The sanctuary has is taken into consideration to be the world’s largest rookery of sea turtles. Gahirmatha Beach is also a beach within the Indian state of Odisha. The beach includes the adjacent portion of the Bay of Bengal and could be a a part of Gahirmatha marine wildlife sanctuary. Odisha coast has the world’s largest known rookery of ridley turtle. At two other masses which are at the mouth of the rivers Rushikulya and Devi nesting beaches are located. Gahirmatha is that the only marine wildlife sanctuary of Odisha. This was notified in and of itself in Government of Odisha, Forest & Environment Department.
LOCATION
It’s located between 86 degrees 45′ 57″ to 87 degrees 17′ 36″- east longitude and 20 degree 17′ 32″ to twenty degree 45’58” – north latitude. The sanctuary covers a section of 1435.0 km2 out of which water body covers 1408.0 km2 and also the rest 27.0 km2 is roofed by land mass which consists mudflats, forests etc. The sanctuary’s core area consists of 725.50 km2 . The full sanctuary area comes within the revenue district of Kendrapara.
LIVING OF THE TURTLES
Ridley sea turtles kill marine snails, smaller styles of fish, fish eggs, crustaceans, and jellyfish. The algal material is additionally used as food by the Ridleys. They mostly grind and crush the food materials before eating. Its climate is humid thanks to the closeness of the Bay of Bengal. Gahirmatha gets rainfall from June to September.
FLORA & FAUNA OF THE SANCTUARY
The Gahirmatha Turtle Sanctuary provides a good diversity of flora and fauna. The fauna of Gahirmatha Turtle Sanctuary is extremely extraordinary. The sanctuary contains the flora like, Ziziphus Bija, Hiwar, Bel,Palas, and etc .Irrespective of how amusing their migratory route may appear, their journey occasionally is treacherous. With accidental killing, preying on by crabs, birds and snakes among others, their protection becomes a significant priority. And for the identical reason,
Odisha has since a few years been rolling out initiatives for the conservation of Pacific ridley. Migrating thousands of miles annually to those beaches, the gang comes together for arribada when the feminine turtles lay a couple of hundred eggs. Thereafter the turtles leave the nesting ground to stride within the deep sea. It is still a mystery where the turtle go to .It’s only after 45-65 days that eggs begin to hatch, following which the crawling babies make their first trek towards the vast sea. They are very brave as they grow without their mothers. Per officials, with no human interference, the hatchlings began emerging from the sand and commenced their journey to the ocean since the beginning of May.
STRANGE FACTS
Susanta Nanda, an Indian Forest Service officer from Odisha, shared a clip of the hatchlings making their thanks to the ocean, calling it a “sight that casts magical spell year after year”. Almost 2 crores ridley hatchlings have come out and about 4 lakhs have nested at nasi-2 Island Gahirmatha Rookery Odisha. For the past several years, there have been hardly any turtles thanks to crowds, ships, and constant human intervention. These are scarce that come to Indian sources and Odisha’s coast every season for nesting for nesting .Regime officials taking care of the ocean turtles told Mongabay-India that the nesting done during the daytime along the Rushikulya rookery was recorded after a span of seven years.
‘RIDLEYS’- MOST ABUNDANT TURTLE
Rushikulya, the river is located within the district of Ganjam,Odisha along the Bay of Bengal and is one in all the most important locations for Pacific ridley mass nesting, a feature happening every year where female turtles arrive on the beach to arrange their nests and lay their eggs. The ridley turtle is the principal abundant turtle in the world with approximately 8 lakhs nesting females yearly.The Lepidochelys olivacea is globally distributed within the tropical regions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. They’re listed as vulnerable within the IUCN Red list and also are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. in step with Nayak, the Rushikulya rookery hosted 330,000 olive ridleys during this mass nesting phase.
Rabindranath Sahu, secretary, Rushikulya marine turtle Protection Committee, said as per the local communities’, the turtles also are known to nest even near their homes. The turtles mate,nest and hatch from November to May and each one of them can lay between 100 to 160 eggs in an hour.Both the mass nesting hotspots (Gahirmatha and Rushikulya) are located near the biodiversity-rich regions of Odisha. While the Gahirmatha site is adjacent to the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary, Rushikulya is near the Chilika Lake, Asia’s largest brackish water lagoon.
