Goemkarponn desk
CANACONA: The Turtle Conservation Site of Galgibaga, Headquarters of South-Goa Marine Range had a surprise and unexpected visitor as late as early Sunday morning (at about 4.30 am- of 12th May) and laid 124 eggs before the flapper crawled its way back to the sea.
The Forest (Wildlife) departments manned the Turtle Rehabilitation Centre (TRC) of Galgibaga and protected these Olive Ridley eggs in its Nursery as the 43rd Pit.
Out of the 42 turtle pits hosted by Galgibaga TRC in its Nursery, 39 pits having 3935 Eggs are already hatched and releasing 3266 Olive Ridley babies back into the Arabian Sea with a mortality rate of around 17%.
With the addition of one turtle pit, Galgibaga Hatchery is presently guarding 4 olive ridley pits. The new Turtle Nest is expected to hatch somewhere at the end of 1st week or early second week of July month, only if it survives the monsoon onslaught on Galgibaga shore. Incidentally, not only Galgibaga but Goa’s entire shoreline gets severely affected by the seasonal monsoon sand erosion.
Annually, Goa’s coastline hosts the arrival of Olive Ridley turtles to the shore for nesting/laying eggs from the months of November to April (and hardly known for mother turtle arrivals in the month of May), and after the incubation period between 50-55 days, the hatchlings make their way back to the sea.
With the State seriously engaged in protecting the endangered sea species of Olive Ridley is operating four Turtle Rehabilitation Centres under its ambitious Turtle Conservation project, running four turtle Hatcheries –Two in the North and Two in the South. Both the Turtle Nurseries run by Marine Range (South) with its HQ at Galgibaga are located in Canacona Taluka- TRC-Galgibaga and TRC-Agonda.
For the ensuing 2023-24 Turtle Nesting Season TRC-Galgibaga is hosting a record 43 Turtle Pits, while Agonda TRC, the most proficient in the State of Goa is hosting an all-time unprecedented record of 181 turtle-Nests. With many of the Turtle Nests either hatched or a few turtle nest pits destroyed after seawater damaged the pits totalling 166 pits, hatchlings from as many as 15 Pits are still awaited at Agonda TRC and are still expected in these days.
