BERHAMPUR: Newborn Olive Ridleys emerged from pits and crawled into the sea in the early hours of Saturday at the Rushikulya rookery. The hatching took place under adequate protection at the rookery, about 40 km from here.
Spread over 6 km stretching from the coastline in front of Purunabandha village to the beach in front of Kantiagada village, over three lakh turtles reached the nesting site in February.
According to reports, this year, over 3,70,633 turtles arrived in the rookery to lay eggs. Each nest contained around 100 to 120 eggs. Mass hatching of the turtles is expected to increase within a couple of days, said Berhampur DFO Ashish Behera. He added that the hatching process was delayed this time due to rains and will be completed by April second week.
An adult Olive Ridley lays 80 to 200 eggs in a year. The eggs, according to experts, generally hatch between 45 and 60 days. After hatching, the hatchlings remain buried in the sandy nest for around 48 hours. This is the time when their outer shell gets slightly hard so that they can venture out into the open sea.
Meanwhile, forest officials have put up mosquito nets as fences across the landward side of the coast from Gokharkuda to Podampeta at rookery coast to stop the hatchlings from straying towards the land instead of moving towards the sea.
Adequate measures have been taken to protect the baby turtles. The forest department has set up nine camps to monitor the hatching.
To protect them from predators like Brahminy kite, fox and dogs, the wildlife volunteers were seen collecting them in buckets and releasing them into the sea.