Heavy rain spells doom for baby turtles

Heavy rain spells doom for baby turtles

Context

Olive Ridley turtles

What has happened?

Hundreds of thousands of Olive Ridley turtle hatchlings were found buried alive after four days of persistent thundershowers in Odisha’s Gahirmatha Sanctuary compacted their sand-pit nests

Loose sand is helpful

The emergence of hatchlings depends on how loose the sand is. Thundershowers that occurred in the afternoon and evening for four days compacted the sand and baby turtles could not come out

Gahirmatha

Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary is a marine wildlife sanctuary located in Odisha and is a very popular tourist attraction of Odisha in India. It extends from Dhamra River mouth in the north to Brahmani river mouth in the south

• This sanctuary boasts of possessing the world’s largest known rookery (breeding place) of Olive Ridley sea turtle
• Olive Ridley is classified as Vulnerable according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature And Natural Resources (IUCN), and is listed in Appendix I of CITES