And the Journey began with Small Steps

By far I must say it’s the proudest moment for any mom/dad to witness her/his child taking first step. It is the struggle towards life’s journey owns their own. There is nothing as brave as such baby.... whatever we witnessed on 5^th April, not only made us proud, but also made us realize the harsh realities of life....

I would like to make special thanks to Mr Avinash from Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra Mandal to provide us an unanticipated opportunity to be such proud mom/dad for a day and to experience the most beautiful and unforgettable memory...The safe release of Baby Turtle Hatchlings to the Sea...

It was fifth evening, after visiting Kadyavarcha Ganpati, we, group from Kshitij were heading to Anjarle beach, just to have fun time on Seashore and we spotted some local tourists with Mr Avinash, with bucket full of new borns, The Hatchlings of Turtle. He almost instantaneously agreed our request that if we can also join them in release of Hatchlings to Sea.

While interacting with him later, he told us about the problems about depliting turtle population. The overfishing, momma turtle getting caught in fishing nets, climate change, interference of human and change of their habitat has caused the problems on Turtle breeding in recent years. He also told that even when turtle moms are successful in laying eggs, biggest problem was egg poaching by locals, sometimes dogs destroying the nests and eating eggs, some predators and birds also used to destroy the egg nests. However, their Organization have taken initiative to help save these turtles. Lately annual Turtle festivals are also organised, wherein common people can witness this beautiful moments. Its such an amazing initiative to bring strong community involvement in conservation of nests and safe release of hatchlings to sea.

The number of volunteers have joined Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra Mandal and they monitor the shores every day during breeding season. They visit at the time of High tide, when momma turtle might come to lay eggs. They check if the turtle train is there and if momma turtle laid eggs. If they find that, they move the eggs to safe custody ie.e hatchery (fence built on the shore) and bury the eggs in the form of nest and keep it for hatching. Breeding season is typically from November to March, however most of nest are discovered during December and Januray. It usually takes 45 to 60 days for eggs to hatch. The rate of Hatching totally depends on the surrounding temprature, and by creating nest in the Hatchery, the natural conditions are maintained and rate of the hatching is improved..

When we visited, 15 eggs were hatched out of 143 eggs buried in the nest. The conversion ratio might look small(just 10%), but I believe that other eggs might also hatch soon. Most commonly found breed that reproduce here at Kokan shores is Olive Ridley Turtles. 15 eggs hatched at around 3 PM in the afternoon and he decided to release them to sea almost immediately in the evening. The Hatchlings were carried in the bucket from Hatchery and released around 25-30 ft away from the sea.

The reason why they are not directly realised in the sea, but released 30 ft away is the Hatchlings becomes little sharper when they move on their own. It gives them some time to understand the surrounding. It is known fact that the female turtles when matures, comes back to same Seashore for breeding where they were born. Probably by releasing them at 30 ft away, give them time to help understand the magnetic fields of the geology and help them come back to exact same location later in their life for breeding and laying eggs.