CANACONA
The recent turtle nesting season at the twin turtle protected sites at Agonda and Galgibaga in Canacona taluka has brought cheers as well as tears to the forest (wildlife) department.
Over 231 Olive Ridley turtles laid a record 22,965 eggs at the various beaches in South Goa and the eggs were protected at the twin Turtle Rehabilitation Centres (TRC) operated by Forest (Wildlife) at Agonda and Galgibaga.
However, only 13,561 Olive Ridley hatchlings were subsequently released into the sea, at a meagre 59.05 per cent. As many as 8,190 eggs failed to hatch and another set of 1,214 hatchlings died in the pits itself.
Admitting that the high mortality rate had been alarming, Forest (Wildlife) RFO Rajesh Naik has, however, blamed the unseasonal rains as being a main factor for the high mortality rate this season.
“Of course, various factors can be attributed for the damage to the eggs, the heavy rains this season had caused major problems for us in our efforts to protect the turtle pits,” said Naik.
“While some eggs got washed away, we tried to save many pits by replacing the rain-drenched pits with dry sand and as a result save many eggs from getting spoiled and they later developed into hatchlings.”
“Some pits at the newly shifted nesting site of the Agonda TRC got washed away due to rising of seawater, but were partially saved from complete damage to all the eggs.”
“However, many eggs laid at the fag end of the nesting season, especially at Galgibaga, failed to hatch and got spoiled after rains damaged the last pit at Galgibaga. But due to our efforts in changing the sand, we managed to get 8 hatchlings, which itself is remarkable,” Naik added.
The Agonda TRC topped with 181 pits and protecting a record number of 18,011 eggs from among all turtle nesting sites in the State.
However, there was a high mortality rate (53.64%) as a whopping 7,392 eggs failed to hatch and as many as 958 hatchlings died in the pits itself. Only 9,661 Olive Ridley hatchlings from the 18,011 eggs were successful released in the sea at Agonda.
According to sources, many of the hatchlings were not in a very healthy condition as some could not even crawl properly into the sea. The buckets containing the hatchlings had to be directly emptied in the knee-deep waters, and waves took the hatchlings into the sea.
During the last turtle nesting season (2022-23), the twin TRCs at Agonda and Galgibaga had released 8,688 Olive Ridley hatchlings from the 89 pits protecting 9,995 eggs and the motility rate was just about 13%.
The turtle nesting season of 2021-22 was even better as far as mortality rate (11%) was concerned, as 3,673 hatchlings from the 4,163 eggs were released into the sea.
