Ashis Senapati,The Times of India 3/16/15
KENDRAPADA:
A dozen Olive Ridley sea turtles, which were earlier tagged, have
returned to Gahiramatha, considered the world's largest rookery of the
creatures, in Kendrapada district for laying eggs this year.
Around two lakh turtles have reached the beach for mass nesting.
The
forest department in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India
(WII), Dehradun, fitted tags on flippers of turtles between 1998 and
2010.
"We
have spotted turtles with metallic flipper tags. The recovered tags are
marked 'Gahiramatha', 'WII' and a number. This proves female turtles
return to the same beach where they had laid eggs," said principal chief
conservator of forests (wildlife) S S Srivastav.
"The tagging helps us in studying the turtle's migratory route and areas of foraging," added the forest officer.
Sea
turtles are also tagged to obtain information on their reproductive
biology, movements and growth rate, said a forest officer.
Tagging
and satellite telemetry to track their movements help us improve mass
nesting sites and augment protection measures, the officer added.
In
April 2001, for the first time, the forest department and WII along
with turtle biologist Jack Frazier fitted platform transmitter terminals
on four turtles at the Devi beach, facilitating online monitoring of
migratory routes.
All
four turtles stopped transmitting data within four months either due to
technical snags or trawler-related mortalities, said turtle biologist
and former wildlife scientist of WII B C Chaudhury.
In
2007, 30 turtles were fitted with PTTs by WII scientists with the help
of forest department at Rushikulya beach, Devi beach and Gahiramatha,
added Chaudhury.
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