Olive Ridley - on a night by the sea. Solitude in inky-blank darkness by the sea - a lazy-hazy moon making a feeble attempt to shed some light. Not a soul in sight. Such was the setting when we reached the sea-side hamlet of Podampetta last night to witness the hatching of Olive Ridley turtles. Babies whose mother does not see them at birth and ofcourse never in their lifetime. She lays her eggs, painstakingly covers them with sand, packing it so tightly that even the sharpest predators wont get to know that there are eggs below the sand, and then goes away, leaving the hatching and nurturing of the hatchlings to Nature. Suddenly you see little black things popping out of the sand. Right next to where you are sitting. Motionless for a while as they breathe in the world, transiting literally from cold cramped darkness to the warmth and freedom of light. Tiny glistening eyes, then a flap of the limbs as they realise that they can and that they have to move. As they push themselves out of the sand in a coordinated effort, you marvel at the mother turtles largesse in laying a clutch of more than a hundred eggs - making sure that the survival rate does not dip inspite of the fallout of attacks by predators, and other vagaries of Nature. Climbing over each other the hatchlings crawl all over the sand as they emerge. It is astounding to see the precision of their instincts as the grey-black baby turtles start moving seawards. The natural slope of the beach, the white crests of the waves, and the natural light of the horizon, called the brightest horizon, act as the beacon-lights to guide them towards Life and towards survival. If the hatchlings successfully make it down the beach and reach the surf, they begin what is called a “swimming frenzy” which may last for several days and varies in intensity and duration among species. The swimming frenzy gets the hatchlings away from dangerous nearshore waters where predation is high. Once hatchlings enter the water, their lost years begin and their whereabouts will be unknown for as long as a decade. When they have reached approximately the size of a dinner plate, the juvenile turtles will return to coastal areas where they will forage and continue to mature. An experience that has been awe-inspiring beyond compare - made even more special because it happened at such close proximity that we had Olive Ridley babelets climbing all over us! With: Swetashree Purohit. Anuja Mishra. Abinash Dhal.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Apr 2014 10:15:33 +0000
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