Endangered Olive Ridley turtles are not orphans at Kolavippalam beach in Kozhikode district, Kerala. A group of dedicated people make sure that the eggs laid by the visitors from the sea are not taken away by humans or animals for food. They also guard them till they hatch and when the hatchlings are ready to float on the waves, they release them to the water.
Activists of the Theeram Nature Conservation Society, who with their passion and mission came to be called the Turtle People, released 831 Olive Ridley Turtle hatchlings into deep sea this year from the hatchery they keep on the four-km stretch of beach from Kottappuzha to Kodikkal at Kolavippalam. The NGO workers had collected as many as 1,214 eggs this year, according to president MT Suresh Babu.
Turtle eggs would take 47 to 60 days to hatch and the hatchlings head towards the sea with a cacophony thereafter. The hatchling could measure one inch length. When it grows up and is ready to go to sea, it would have one metre length and would weigh up to 80 kg. A female Ridley could lay 150-180 eggs in one season and would come ashore under the cover of darkness. After 50 days, the hatchlings scramble out of the deep pit soon after high tide.
Large numbers of female Ridleys used to arrive at Kolavippalam for nesting but the number came down gradually due to shrinking of the shore as a result of sand mining. Theeram had to buy 2.5 cents of land near the shore for the hatchery as sand was not available there. The Kerala Forest Department was providing some financial assistance to the NGO.
Theeram has been in the work of protecting the endangered turtle species and also breeding them in hatcheries since 1992. According to Suresh Babu, as many as 65 turtles used to turn up years back at Kolavippalam beach to lay eggs, the number had since then dwindled, up to ten in some years due to the illegal sand mining in Kottappuzha estuary. The Theeram workers make it a point to remain awake at nights to keep watch on the turtles and eggs.
Before the formation of Theeram, the not many turtle eggs used to hatch as local people, mongooses and foxes fed on them. The attitude of the people has changed in the recent times and people of nearby areas like Thikkodi and Moodadi now inform Theeram workers whenever they spot turtle eggs. Theeram workers claim that they could have hatched and put into sea more than 50,000 turtle hatchlings since it began the conservation mission in 1992.
