Two men walk out of an enclosure on the beach off Urur Kuppam, precious cargo in hand. It is a little after dusk and a small crowd of adults and children has gathered, following their every move. The men — both from the Forest Department — walk into a clearing with bamboo baskets and tip over its contents.
A black mass of tiny, wriggly Olive Ridley babies tumbles outside.
The hatchlings instantly hobble towards the waves. They, after all, know exactly where to go. We squint our eyes in the receding light to see them disappear. As the night sky dims, a ray of hope shines through. Only weeks ago, several dead turtles washed ashore in Chennai.
Forest deparment staff carry the baby Olive Ridleys
| Photo Credit:
VELANKANNI RAJ B
The enclosure is the Forest Department’s hatchery and a few minutes before the send-off, V Arun and team from the Students Sea Turtle Conservation Network (SSTCN), a voluntary organisation that works with the Forest Department, excavates the hatchlings and talks to the crowd about the ongoing mission.
Olive Ridley sea turtles have long been swimming into the East Coast of India for nesting. For many in the city, the turtle walks between January and March is a yearly ritual. Here, they try their luck at spotting mothers who enter the beach in the dead of night to dig nests and lay eggs.
Arun is one of the earliest members of SSTCN. He explains that SSTCN volunteers walk the 14-kilometre stretch from Neelankarai to Marina beach every night from January to March to collect turtle eggs. “This is to protect the eggs and hatchlings from predators such as dogs,” he explains, adding that in an ideal situation, they ought to be left alone to hatch and enter the sea on their own.
Our coastline though, has dramatically changed over the years, and Arun acknowledges that the turtles will have a better rate of survival if their eggs are protected in this manner.
The turtles will be back to the same shore to lay eggs, 12 to 20 years later
| Photo Credit:
VELANKANNI RAJ B
The first turtle walk in Chennai was an accidental one. Arun says that herpetologist Romulus Whitaker and author Zai Whitaker happened to see turtles nesting in our beaches during their walks in the early 1970s. While Romulus started the first hatchery to save the eggs from poachers, their discovery led to a whole generation of men and women who volunteered to help these visitors from the sea. Notable among them, recalls Arun, was the late Satish Baskar, a legend in the field. He mentored the SSTCN and went on inspire several students towards sea turtle conservation.
People young and old have gathered to give Olive Ridley hatchlings a send-off
| Photo Credit:
VELANKANNI RAJ B
Until January 31, over 1,200 Olive Ridley deaths were recorded along the coast of Chennai, and a total of 380 nests were discovered this season. “Each of these had around 120 eggs in them,” points out Arun. The deaths were attributed to reasons such as unchecked trawling. With Rushikulya in Odisha seeing a record nesting of 6.5 lakh Olive Ridleys, Arun says that the dead turtles were probably on their way there for nesting, and ended up getting entangled in nets along the way due to their exceptionally large numbers.
Senior fisherman S Palayam calls for more awareness among all the stakeholders so that such incidents do not occur in the future. “We fisherfolk call Olive Ridleys ‘kutti amma’,” he says, adding: “It is considered ill-fortune if they get entangled in our nets and we release them at sea and stay away from the water that day,” says the 62-year-old. The fisherfolk maintain a pious relationship with the turtles, says Palayam. They offer them betel leaves, flattened rice, and jaggery in a ritual worship every year called ‘pachai poduthal’.
Hatchlings on their way home
| Photo Credit:
VELANKANNI RAJ B
Where do Olive Ridleys come from? According to professor BC Choudhury, a retired scientist from the Wildlife Institute of India and advisor to the Wildlife Trust of India, they are among the smallest marine turtles in India and hence do not migrate large distances. “Once they come to the East Coast to lay their eggs, they go back to their feeding sites South of Sri Lanka,” he says.
Babies that have been excavated from nests at the hatchery
| Photo Credit:
VELANKANNI RAJ B
Choudhury says that their numbers are increasing and that currently around 10,000,00 Olive Ridley turtles come to the Indian coastline to lay eggs. He too feels that the recent surge in turtle deaths is due to large numbers arriving at the East Coast. “The larger the number of turtles, more the chance of them getting entangled in fishing nets.” He calls for stricter implementation of rules and regulations by the Fisheries Department to ensure marine life is protected.
Olive Ridleys are a fascinating subject for scientists. For one, they come back to the same shore they were born in to lay eggs 12 to 20 years later. “Lots of research is going on to understand this,” points out Choudhury. He adds that since mother turtles keep visiting the same shore for nesting, it is likely that they pass on the genetic information to babies. “The signature of the beach where they nest could be transmitted to baby turtles that they come back to the same place after they become adults,” he adds.
An Olive Ridley turtle is seen laying eggs at the Rushikulya river mouth beach during their mass nesting time near Podampeta village in Ganjam district of Odisha.
| Photo Credit:
BISWARANJAN ROUT
Choudhury has been studying the mass nesting of Olive Ridleys in Odisha from 1975 and calls the sight a “once is a lifetime experience”.
Another mystery about baby turtles is that marine scientists do not know what they do once they enter the sea. “The years from the time they enter the sea till the time they return for nesting, are called ‘lost years’,” he points out.
“How do they grow? What do they do? Do they remain at sea all the time? We still don’t know.”
Eventually though, they will come back to where it all began.
For details on hatchlings being released, visit sstcn.org
Published – April 24, 2025 12:29 pm IST