I was worried that when my kids grow up they are going to crib about the fact that all their summer vacations are in my home land Orissa and they don’t get to go abroad like other kids. So I was shocked when my six year old daughter came to me this year and asked me I we could go a bit early this year i.e. right after their final exams so they could watch Olive Ridley turtles, who come all the way from Australia to lay their eggs in our own humble Orissa.
Needless to say I was zapped by this interest and also I had no idea about what these turtles were all about. I readily agreed, I mean anything to get two young kids interested in another ‘boring’ vacation in dad’s homeland. So we started preparing and I figured out we needed to visit the Bhadrak district in Orissa, the turtles come to Gahirmatha beach to lay their eggs, or nesting as it’s called. It wasn’t long before we hit our first roadblock, my daughter came crying telling me how we have to change our plans I asked her to calm down and tell me what was wrong, but all I could manage out of her was that she had heard that environmentalist’s are claiming that this year the turtles will not come to Orissa.
Now, this also mean’s that daddy has to somehow be the superhero and clear this problem, well as I cannot fly like superman nor have ranger power. I did the next best, sat on my trusted computer and surfed for more information. The fact was that a Port was being constructed at the Dhamra river and this could endanger the turtles. I only could look for more information and hope for a miracle. A week before we left I gave my daughter the good news ‘ The turtles have commenced their annual rendezvous to Gahiramatha marine sanctuary for mass nesting and their numbers are expected to go beyond four lakh this year’. This development has happened just a few days after some environmental protection groups predicted dredging at Dhamra Port as threat to the conservation of Olive Ridley turtles. However, the turtles have come back to lay eggs on Gahiramatha beaches.
Thousands of female turtles have entered the nesting beach in order to lay their eggs after playing truant last two years. The turtles which had already congregated in the sea near Gahiramatha, came ashore for nesting in groups of 5000 to 10000 each.
The turtles stayed over an hour at the nesting ground before commencing their seaward journey. The government has organized about 50 forest personnel on the beach to keep vigil and to ensure the safe and undisturbed mass nesting of the turtle species. Forest department has organized round-the-clock vigil to ensure a safe arribada and to keep predators like wild dogs at bay.
So with this good news, daddy is the new superhero and we travel to Orissa to enjoy this spectacular display of nature.