In the wee hours of a fine Sunday in March, two employees of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department monitored every metre of the shore between Srinivasapuram and Kalaignar Memorial in Chennai to find the nests of Olive Ridley sea turtles. In one go, they covered 8 kilometres. “It is just a one-way tracking as the peak season is over. Else, we have to walk another 8 kilometres to the starting point of the trekking, to know if turtles laid eggs while we were away,” said one of them.
A dedicated team from the Forest Department undertakes this meticulous job four months from January to April every year to protect the population of the Olive Ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea). They have also joined hands with a voluntary group called SSTCN (Students Sea Turtle Conservation Network), to fetch the eggs from the turtle nests to the hatcheries to protect them from people and other predators. The hatchlings are then released into the sea, safely, after the long incubation period.
Olive Ridleys are classified as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List. They also figure under Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) for wild fauna and flora. In India, the species has been listed on Schedule - 1 of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Keeping them as pets, poaching, smuggling, and illegal trading are strictly prohibited.
The conservation of Olive Ridley turtles in Chennai starts with a ‘turtle walk’. People in Chennai extend their support to the Forest Department and SSTCN to collect the eggs during the turtle walks. Often conservationists across the state visit the city to witness and record the hatching of eggs and release of hatchlings on the shores of Chennai.
Usually, the turtle walks would start in the month of January. Two teams, one from Tamil Nadu Forest Department and another from SSTCN cover the entire stretch from Neelankarai to Kalaignar memorial to fetch the eggs. Volunteers in SSTCN walk in the late hours of the night. In the early morning hours, the personnel from the Forest Department will walk on the shores to ensure eggs are not harmed by dogs, humans, and other predators.
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Eggs of Olive Ridley turtles deposited in the conical shaped nest in Besant Nagar hatchery - TNM Photo by Nithya Pandian
“SSTCN volunteers, who do the first turtle walk, would erase the in and out tracks of the turtles if they found the nests and have collected the eggs,” said a Forest Department employee.
Footprints of people, tracks of fibre boats as they are dragged through the sea shore and that of carriages used to dump the solid waste and plastics into the sea make it hard to find the tracks of the turtles. During the walk, forest personnel said that it was important to look at the adjacent wet area of the water for the turtle tracks. “Turtles usually don’t scale the sand wall fearing falling back and flipping back on their shells. It would be really hard for them to flip again to the normal position,” an official said. In the months like March and April, the number of nests may be low. Sometimes, the forest department personnel return empty-handed. However, the walk is mandatory to ensure nothing is left behind.
Olive Ridleys are named so because of the olive-coloured shells. They are also known as Black Olive turtles and Pacific Ridley sea turtles and live in warm waters near the equator. During reproduction time, they migrate. Male turtles have no job to be on the shores and only nesting females arrive on the coasts. Eastern coastal regions of India are among the habitats where thousands of turtles migrate and lay eggs. Nesting female turtles lay up to 150 eggs at once. In the breeding season, three times the nesting females lay eggs. According to Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary of Environment Climate Change & Forests of Tamil Nadu, 25,000 turtle hatchlings were released into the sea from the hatcheries in Chennai this year, a record.
Our beaches are buzzing with baby turtles. Team #TNForest is busy with the turtle nesting season. The Hatchery at Chennai has already released about 25 Thousand turtle hatchlings this season,the highest so far in several years #Turtles pic.twitter.com/Uv9qjUAcrj
— Supriya Sahu IAS (@supriyasahuias) March 25, 2023
The Odisha coast also witnesses the arrival of thousands of Olive Ridley and Kemp's Ridley turtles every year. Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary is the largest rookery on the earth for Olive Ridley turtles. This “mass nesting” phenomenon is called Arribada (arrival in Spanish). These turtles predominantly occupy the Gahirmatha beach. No one can say with certainty what leads thousands of nesting female Olive Ridley turtles to move en masse to beaches in Odisha to lay the eggs. However, the Arribada was never witnessed on the coasts of Tamil Nadu. "The survival rate of the Olive Ridley turtles is low and only one turtle survives to adulthood out of a thousand hatchlings," said an instructor in the Besant Nagar hatchery.
After the turtle walks in Chennai, volunteers and Forest Department employees deposit the collected eggs in the three hatcheries at Kovalam, Neelankarai and Besant Nagar. The hatcheries have replica nests in conical shape where the eggs are carefully placed. “The eggs that are placed in January, usually take a longer time to hatch. The incubation period is anytime between 45 and 50 days but it is less for the eggs that are laid in after the colder months,” said an instructor. Round-the-clock monitoring is given to the hatchery in Besant Nagar. The Forest Department and volunteers ensure no outsiders enter the hatchery and roam around it unnecessarily.
After the hatchlings come out they would be released into the sea. “Babies are easy prey for crows, so we have to wait for the sunset," said an instructor. According to him, the hatchery setup was first introduced by Romulus Earl Whitaker, wildlife conservationist and founder of Madras Snake Park, The Andaman and Nicobar Environment Trust (ANET), four decades ago. SSTCN was formed in 1987 when college students volunteered themselves for this conservation. The Chennai office of TN Forest Department took over the turtle conservation program several years ago and now regularly conducts walks and creates awareness.
Volunteers collect the hatchlings on bamboo baskets and bring them to the shores. Hatchlings are released two metres away from the water. The tiny baby turtles clamber over each other as they crawl towards the water. As the waves roll in, the turtles are pushed up forward, and backward until the turtles find the right way to swim in the ocean toward their 'home'.
"When surviving female baby turtles reach adulthood, they again return to the same shores after 14 to 15 years to lay their eggs. This is the most fascinating thing about these turtles," he said.
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Newly hatched baby turtles at Besant Nagar hatchery - TNM Photo by Nithya Pandian
Newly hatched baby turtles always want to be on the brighter side. The ocean reflects the stars and moonlight and the water surface is more reflective than the land surface. "But, there are challenges to the tiny turtles that are hatched in bigger cities like Chennai. The artificial, electric lights attract the turtles to crawl toward the shore which is lethal," said an instructor. According to the conservation team, the number of nests found in the stretch between Pattinapakkam and Kalaignar Memorial is higher than the stretch between Besant Nagar and Neelankarai. The proposed Pen Monument for erstwhile Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi in the sea is a potential threat to nesting turtles.
Incubating the eggs in the hatchery rather than leaving them in conical-shaped nests could save thousands of baby turtles, the experts explain. If the eggs are left vulnerable they would become food for the dogs, and people or be crushed by fibre boats. Plastic pollution, solid wastes generated in the beach shops, and human intervention are other factors that impact the survival of the turtles and their nests. “Fishermen inform us about the whereabouts of nests and the arrival time of turtles. They ensure none hurts the nesting females,” a forest official said.