Olive ridley Turtle

Efforts to conserve Olive Ridley Turtles:

• Wildlife authorities have launched a massive exercise to conserve Olive Ridley turtles in the Krishna Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS).
• An unprecedented number of over 10,500 eggs of the turtles have been collected since early March. They are being conserved in the rookeries set up within the KWS limits.
• 139 artificial nests have been arranged in the three rookeries set up at Sangameswaram, lighthouse area, and Jinkapalem of Nagayalanka mandal as part of the in situ conservation method.
• The incubation period ranges from 45 to 60 days
• Members of the Yanadi tribe are directly involved in the conservation bid. They have been given the task of collecting the eggs on the beach and maintaining the rookeries.

Threats: 

• Approximately 1 hatchling survives to reach adulthood for every 1000 hatchlings that enter the sea waters. 
• Olive-ridleys face serious threats across their migratory route, habitat and nesting beaches, due to human activities such as turtle unfriendly fishing practices, development and exploitation of nesting beaches for ports, and tourist centres. 
• these turtles and their products is banned under CITES Appendix I, still extensively poached for their meat, shell and leather, and their eggs, 
• Accidental killing of adult turtles through entanglement in trawl nets and gill nets due to uncontrolled fishing 
• To reduce accidental killing in India, the Orissa government has made it mandatory for trawls to use Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs), a net specially designed with an exit cover which allows the turtles to escape while retaining the catch. However, this has been strongly opposed by the fishing communities as they believe TEDs result in loss of considerable amount of the catch along with the turtle. 

All About Olive Ridley Turtles

1. The Olive ridley turtles (also known as the Pacific ridley sea turtle) are the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world, inhabiting warm waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. 
2. These turtles, along with their cousin the Kemps ridley turtle, are best known for their unique mass nesting called Arribada, where thousands of females come together on the same beach to lay eggs. 
3. Though found in abundance, their numbers have been declining over the past few years. Classified as ‘Vulnerable’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) several Olive Ridley turtles lay eggs during this time of the year along the Visakhapatnam coast, considered a sporadic nesting zone.
4. Growing to about 2 feet in length, and 50 kg in weight, the Olive ridley gets its name from its olive colored carapace, which is heart-shaped and rounded. 
5. Olive Ridley Turtles take 25 to 30 years to reach adulthood but the survival rate of the young ones is abysmally low.
6. They are carnivores, and feed mainly on jellyfish, shrimp, snails, crabs, molluscs and a variety of fish and their eggs. 
7. Interestingly, females return to the very same beach from where they first hatched, to lay their eggs. During this phenomenal nesting, up to 600,000 and more females emerge from the waters, over a period of five to seven days, to lay eggs. 
8. They lay their eggs in conical nests about one and a half feet deep which they laboriously dig with their hind flippers. 
9. The coast of Orissa in India is the largest mass nesting site for the Olive-ridley, followed by the coasts of Mexico and Costa Rica. 
10. After about 45-65 days, the eggs begin to hatch, and these beaches are swamped with crawling Olive-ridley turtle babies, making their first trek towards the vast ocean. 
11. During this trek they are exposed to predators like jackals, birds, hyenas, fiddler crabs, and feral dogs lurking around, waiting to feed on them. 
12. WWF-India, along with the fishermen community, has been involved in protecting the Olive ridley rookery at the mass nesting site at Rushikulaya, in Orissa, by fencing off the nesting area and patrolling it till hatching and ensuring a safe passage for the hatchlings to the sea. 

NTPC, forest dept sign MoU to protect Olive Ridley turtles

• The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has joined hands with the state forest department to protect the endangered species along the nine districts of Andhra Pradesh.
• NTPC Shimhadri handed over a cheque for Rs 1 crore to the forest department for carrying out the conservation works in AP for the current financial year.
• As part of the conservation programme that will be spread over five years, NTPC will contribute Rs 4.6 crore under which inventory mapping of breeding sites of Olive Ridleys along with identification of nesting and breeding habits along the shore line will be undertaken.
• The conservation programme will also develop guidelines to safeguard and minimise turtle mortality apart from developing the local and national cooperative and taking collaborative action for turtle conservation. The conservation project envisages involving local communities, NGOs, forest department and other stakeholders in protection and conservation of in-situ and ex-situ of nests thus providing livelihood, construction and repairing of hatcheries, awareness campaigns and knowledge sharing in Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore districts.