Have you ever wondered what have we been doing to earth?
Have you ever wondered how many species we have lost by our day-to-day activities?
Olive ridley's also known as Pacific ridley sea turtle are the dominant creatures in the species of turtles. Olive Ridley's are best known for the mass number nesting known as "Arribadas" . They lay their eggs half feet deep which they dig with their hand flippers. There are a few nesting grounds across the world, one such is near Gahirmatha beach i.e. Gokharkuda in Odisha. The Gahirmatha beach separating bheetarkanika mangroves from Bay of Bengal makes it one of the world's important nesting grounds.
We have some beautiful places which is home to some wonderful species around world, is getting destroyed by us. In 1991, over 600,000 turtles nested along the coasts of Odisha. It was the same when i experienced it back in 2013. The lakhs of baby turtles coming out from the ground to live their lives making their way towards the ocean just left me with goosebumps. There's a strict entry and the whole area is under forest department as the species is endangered and should be out of the stray dogs. I was lucky enough to get an entry there and even experience the hatching of the mommy Olive Ridley along with the babies.
But unfortunately, this popular nesting ground isn't the same as it was for years. Yes and we are responsible for the same. Leaving the plastics, soil erosion, oil spilling from ships etc. are the reasons why this happened. My second visit to this place was in 2016, only 3 years down the lane the whole place was drastically changed . I rarely spotted a few, even which were saved by the forest department for examining. The whole beach is eroded, which made it tough for the Olive Ridley's to climb up to the beach for nesting. We almost traveled a kilometer along the coastline and it was the same. We even spotted a mommy Olive Ridley trying to climb up to the eroded sand stage which was clearly impossible as it to the others. Few of them were died getting caught by the fish nets, rather than putting all the blame to the fisherman's, we should feel responsible.
Survey says, there were few steps taken by the forest department where the nesting ground was open again but wasn't the same like previous years. Hope to see the nesting grounds filled with baby turtles in the upcoming years, keeping it one of the world's largest nesting point across the world. At the end travel is not about a view, it's about the experience. #RealExperience #Mobileclicks
