OLIVE RIDLEY - ENVIRONMENT
News: Rushikulya
sands teem with Olive Ridleys
What's in the news?
● Nearly
6.37 lakh Olive Ridley turtles mass nesting on the Rushikulya coast this year,
setting a new record for the beach in Ganjam district of Odisha.
Key takeaways:
● Last
year, 5.5 lakh Olive Ridley turtles came to Rushikulya for mass nesting.
● Turtles
also arrive at Gahirmatha beach in Kendrapara district, which is known as the
world's largest known rookery.
Olive Ridley turtles:
● They
are the smallest and most abundant sea
turtles found in the world.
● These
carnivorous turtles got their name
from their olive-colored carapace.
● They
are well-known for their unique mass nesting known as Arribada, in which thousands of females gather on the same beach to
lay eggs.
● They
can grow up to two-and-a-half feet in length and weigh 30-45 kilograms.
Food: Mainly shrimp,
crab, molluscs, fish and crabs.
Habitat:
● They
can be found in the tropical waters of
Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans.
● The
Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary in Odisha
is home to the world's largest sea turtle rookery (a colony of breeding
animals).
Nesting sites:
● Rushikulya
rookery coast (Odisha),
● Gahirmatha
beach (Bhitarkanika National Park)
● Mouth
of the Devi River.
Protection Status:
● Schedule I
of the Wildlife Protection Act,1972.
● Vulnerable
on the IUCN Red List.
● CITES
Appendix I.
Threats:
● Waste
and marine pollution.
● They
are extensively poached for their shells, meat, leather, and eggs.
● Plastic Garbage:
A growing waste of plastics, fishing nets, discarded nets, polythene, and other
garbage thrown by tourists and fishermen.
● Trawlers:
Overexploitation of marine resources by trawlers often breaches the restriction
not to fish within 20 kilometers of a marine sanctuary.
● Many
of the dead turtles had injury marks, indicating that they had been trapped in
trawls or gill nets.
Initiatives to protect the Olive Ridley Turtle:
Operation Olivia:
● Every
year, from November to December, the Indian
Coast Guard's "Operation Olivia" which began in the early 1980s,
assists in the protection of Olive Ridley turtles as they cluster along the
Odisha coast for breeding and nesting.
● It
also detects unlawful trawling activity.
Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs):
● To
reduce accidental death in India,
the Odisha government has made the
use of Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) mandatory for trawls, which are nets
particularly built with an exit cover that allows turtles to escape while
retaining the catch.
Sea Turtles in India:
There are five species of sea turtles in Indian waters viz.,
1. Leatherback
- Vulnerable
2. Loggerhead
- Vulnerable
3. Hawksbill
- Critically endangered
4. Green
- Endangered
5. Olive
Ridley - Vulnerable.