Mass hatching of Olive Ridley turtles began at Odisha’s Rushikulya rookery, a major nesting site of these marine turtles.

Mass hatching of Olive Ridley turtles is a very celebrated news every year. Also make sure to look at the Rivers system in the region from the map above.

Olive Ridley Turtles

• The Olive Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), also known as the Pacific ridley sea turtle, is a medium-sized species of sea turtle found in warm and tropical waters, primarily in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
• In the Indian Ocean, the majority of olive ridleys nest in two or three large groups at Rushikulya rookery near Gahirmatha in Odisha.
• The coast of Odisha in India is the largest mass nesting site for the olive ridley, followed by the coasts of Mexico and Costa Rica.
• The species is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List, Appendix 1 in CITES, and Schedule 1 in Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

Special feature: Mass nesting

• They are best known for their behaviour of synchronized nesting in mass numbers, termed Arribadas.
• Interestingly, females return to the very same beach from where they first hatched, to lay their eggs.
• They lay their eggs in conical nests about one and a half feet deep which they laboriously dig with their hind flippers.
• They hatch in 45 to 60 days, depending on the temperature of the sand and atmosphere during the incubation period.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now