Nature’s Miracle: Tagged Olive Ridley Turtle Travels 1,000 Km In 51 Days
“The tagged turtle was last located along the Andhra Pradesh coast, after covering approximately 1,000 km over 51 days,” informed Odisha’s Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Prem Shankar Jha.
Bhubaneswar: In a remarkable journey across the Indian coastline, an Olive Ridley sea turtle tagged with a satellite tracking device at Odisha’s Gahirmatha beach has travelled nearly 1,000 kilometres in just 51 days, finally reaching the shores of Andhra Pradesh.
According to forest officials, the turtle navigated through the coastal waters of Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry before arriving at its current location. The movement was confirmed through the latest tracking data from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
“The tagged turtle was last located along the Andhra Pradesh coast, after covering approximately 1,000 km over 51 days,” informed Odisha’s Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Prem Shankar Jha.
This isn’t the first instance of such a remarkable odyssey. Officials recalled a turtle tagged in Odisha four years ago that had astonishingly covered over 3,500 kilometres to nest on a beach in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district.
Every year, millions of Olive Ridley turtles arrive along the Odisha coast for mass nesting, with Gahirmatha beach in Kendrapara district acclaimed as the world’s largest rookery for this vulnerable marine species. The turtles also gather in large numbers at the Rushikulya river mouth in Ganjam district and the Devi river mouth in Puri district.
To better understand their migratory patterns and reproductive behaviour, around 3,000 turtles are tagged with tracking devices annually. However, experts suggest that tagging at least one lakh turtles is essential to gain comprehensive insights into their biology, growth rates, foraging areas, and migratory routes.
The Odisha forest department initially launched the turtle tagging programme in 1999. In the early years, two tagged turtles from Odisha were tracked to Sri Lanka’s coast. However, the initiative was later paused, only to be revived by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) in 2021.
Since then, between 2021 and 2024, approximately 12,000 Olive Ridley turtles have been tagged across Gahirmatha and Rushikulya nesting sites, offering valuable data to aid conservation efforts for the species.
