After nearly 25 years, the wildlife wing of the Forest Department has resumed the Olive Ridley conservation programme by setting up a hatchery at Besant Nagar.
K. Geethanjali, wildlife warden, Chennai, told The Hindu that till 1980s, the department was actively involved in turtle conservation. When it halted its efforts, non-governmental organisations and volunteers stepped in.
The department set up the hatchery in January near the broken bridge behind the Theosophical Society premises. It has appointed a dozen people to guard the hatchery and collect eggs.
A team of eight persons employed by the department were divided into two groups with four members each.
While one group, with a couple of forest officials, walked from Besant Nagar to Neelankarai to identify the nests and collect them, another team walked between Neelankarai and Besant Nagar.
In the current egg-laying season (between January and March), the groups identified 85 nests with 9,784 eggs. All of them were collected and deposited in the hatchery. Of the total, only 8,834 eggs have hatched.
On an average, there were more than 150 eggs in each nest, and it would take 45 days for them to hatch, Ms. Geethanjali said.
To create awareness of Olive Ridley turtle conservation, the department has built a concrete tomb near the hatchery. Wildlife officials said that this season had witnessed more than 700 Olive Ridley deaths along the coast between Chennai and Marakkanam.
