Hundreds of olive Ridley turtles released into Bay of Bengal this morning. There as many number of tiny turtles found at the sea entering into it. Olive Ridley Turtles made the north coastal Andhra as their breeding nests. These turtles are facing extreme biotic pressure due to increasing number of visitors and beach tourism development activities along the coasts of beach.

“As against 38,216 eggs found from the nests last year, we collected 37,768 eggs during January-March this year between the Naval Coastal Battery and Bheemili. All the eggs were kept for hatching at three hatcheries established by our department – two at Ramakrishna Beach and one at Jodugullapalem,” said divisional forest officer B Dhanujaya Rao.

The most sporadic sites of these Olive Ridley Turtles is Visakhapatanam. In protecting the sea turtle, the state government Department planned four Hatcheries in protecting them. But only two are set ready for this year. These two Hatcheries are located one at Jodugullaplaem and another at Kursura Museum, explained by Divisional Forest officer B Dhanunjaya Rao.

“Instead of curbing beach erosion and providing a protective environment for the endangered species of Olive Ridley turtles, the government is ruining their habitats by developing the beach for tourism. Events like International Fleet Review, organised in February, soon after the breeding period started in January, also impacted the breeding of these turtles,” said M Krishna Chaitanya, a student of GITAM University.

“The 118 turtle eggs had been preserved in the forest department’s hatchery set up in the village and were among 888 eggs collected between Kalapet and Kanniakoil coastal hamlets over the past few months,” said Deputy Conservator of Forests G Sathyamoorthy, who led the team.

“The department is in association with local community and youth volunteers had collected the eggs. The eggs normally take 45 to 50 days to hatch and the first batch of the newborn turtles has been released into the sea,” he said.