Heavy rain spells doom for baby turtles

Sand compacted; nests strewn with cracked eggs and carcasses; forest personnel devastated

Hundreds of thousands of Olive Ridley turtle hatchlings were found buried alive after four days of persistent thundershowers in Odisha’s Gahirmatha Sanctuary compacted their sand-pit nests.

This year, over six lakh turtles nested at Gahirmatha, which hosts more numbers of Olive Ridleys than any mass nesting ground in India.

A spell or two of rain around now is normal but continuous and heavy rainfall this year, especially every afternoon between April 24 and 29, has had a catastrophic impact on the Gahirmatha rookery.

“The emergence of hatchlings depends on how loose the sand is. Thundershowers that occurred in the afternoon and evening for four days compacted the sand and baby turtles could not come out,” B. P. Acharya, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of the Rajnagar Forest Division told

The Hindu over phone.

Significant loss

“Although it is not possible to put a figure on hatchling loss, it is quite significant.”

Although the loss of hatchlings has not been quantified, the sight of half-hatched eggs and baby turtle carcasses stuck in the sand has left on-duty forest personnel devastated. “Lakhs of turtles come to this part of world by travelling thousands of miles and lay eggs in January and February. Eggs of these harmless creatures face great risk from natural predators. Our watchers and volunteers protect eggs from dogs, jackals and other predators for 40-50 days. The whole difficult process comes to a naught when weather plays spoilsport at the time of the birth of babies, and it hurts,” said Mr. Acharya.

Since mother turtles return to the sea after laying the eggs, turtle babies get no help in averting dangers. Also, high tide swept lakhs of eggs into the Bay of Bengal.