Olive ridleys start hatching at Rushikulya

Olive ridleys start hatching at Rushikulya

What has happened?

Sporadic hatching of olive ridley eggs has started at the mass nesting site at Rushikulya rookery coast in Ganjam district of Odisha

Bit of a delay

• It was expected that mass hatching of eggs will start on the night of April 7 or 8
• But it was delayed due to summer drizzles during the past few days which lengthened the incubation period from the usual 45 days
• Buried under the sand, the eggs use ambient heat of the beach for incubation
• Rainfall reduced the temperature of the eggs in the nests

CCTVs installed

• As mass hatching is again expected to start in the next few days, the forest department has begun the process to document the phenomenon by opening a centre at Gokhakuda
• CCTVs have been installed to check human intervention during the hatching process.