By far I must say it’s the proudest moment for anymom/dad to witness her/his child taking first step. It is the struggle towardslife’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 alsomade us realize the harsh realities of life....

I would like to make special thanks to Mr Avinash fromSahyadri Nisarga Mitra Mandal to provide us an unanticipated opportunity to be suchproud mom/dad for a day and to experience the most beautiful and unforgettablememory...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 onSeashore and we spotted some local tourists with Mr Avinash, with bucket fullof new borns, The Hatchlings of Turtle. He almost instantaneously agreed ourrequest that if we can also join them in release of Hatchlings to Sea.

Whileinteracting with him later, he told us about the problems about deplitingturtle population. The overfishing, momma turtle getting caught in fishingnets, climate change, interference of human and change of their habitat hascaused the problems on Turtle breeding in recent years. He also told that evenwhen turtle moms are successful in laying eggs, biggest problem was eggpoaching by locals, sometimes dogs destroying the nests and eating eggs, somepredators and birds also used to destroy the egg nests. However, theirOrganization have taken initiative to help save these turtles. Lately annualTurtle festivals are also organised, wherein common people can witness thisbeautiful moments. Its such an amazing initiative to bring strong communityinvolvement in conservation of nests and safe release of hatchlings to sea.

The number ofvolunteers have joined Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra Mandal and they monitor theshores 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 isthere and if momma turtle laid eggs. If they find that, they move the eggs tosafe custody ie.e hatchery (fence built on the shore) and bury the eggs in theform of nest and keep it for hatching. Breeding season is typically fromNovember to March, however most of nest are discovered during December andJanuray. It usually takes 45 to 60 days for eggs to hatch. The rate of Hatchingtotally depends on the surrounding temprature, and by creating nest in theHatchery, the natural conditions are maintained and rate of the hatching isimproved..

When wevisited, 15 eggs were hatched out of 143 eggs buried in the nest. The conversionratio might look small(just 10%), but I believe that other eggs might alsohatch soon. Most commonly found breed that reproduce here at Kokan shores isOlive Ridley Turtles. 15 eggs hatched at around 3 PM in the afternoon and hedecided to release them to sea almost immediately in the evening. TheHatchlings were carried in the bucket from Hatchery and released around 25-30ft 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 moveon their own. It gives them some time to understand the surrounding. It isknown fact that the female turtles when matures, comes back to same Seashorefor breeding where they were born. Probably by releasing them at 30 ft away, givethem time to help understand the magnetic fields of the geology and help themcome back to exact same location later in their life for breeding and layingeggs.