21-Mar-2020: Mass nesting of olive Ridleys begins at Rushikulya
Mass nesting of olive Ridleys has started at Odisha’s Rushikulya rookery coast.
Olive Ridley turtles are among the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world. They are found in warm and tropical waters, primarily in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, but also in the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean. They are predominantly omnivorous.
Olive Ridley turtles and the related Kemps Ridley turtles are best known for their behavior of synchronized nesting in mass numbers, termed arribadas. Gahirmatha marine sanctuary and Rushikulya rookery coast in Ganjam district are the main Olive Ridley Nesting sites in Odisha.
Recently, another Olive Ridley mass nesting site has been added. This is the Bahuda Rookery at a beach on Bahuda river mouth in Ganjam district.
Conservation Status: It is listed as vulnerable under the IUCN Red List. In India, it is protected under Schedule I of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Trading in its products is banned under CITES. The Coast Guard had launched ‘Operation Olivia’ to intercept unlawful trawling activities along Odisha coast to ensure safe passage to the Olive Ridley turtles during the nesting season.
21-Apr-2019: Over one lakh Olive Ridley turtles enter sea in Odisha
The idyllic Kalam Island off the Odisha coast has become lively with lakhs of baby Olive Ridley turtles crawling towards the Bay of Bengal after emerging from eggshells. The Odisha Forest and Environment Department said baby turtles had emerged from approximately 1.25 lakh nests.
The process is supposed to continue for another two days as 4.5 lakh turtles had arrived at beaches under Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary to lay eggs this year. Millions of baby turtles would make their way into the sea in the next two days.
The unmanned island, located close to the Wheeler’s Island defence test range centre, a prohibited territory, is one of the largest rookeries in the world. Except forest department officials, no one has had the chance to witness the spectacular sight. After breaking the eggshells, the baby turtles crawled seawards almost immediately without their mothers. Eggs laid by turtles in March were incubated under natural process.
28-Dec-2018: Bahuda Rookery: Another Olive Ridley Nesting Site in Odisha
The Forest Department of Odisha is all set to start a new Olive Ridley mass nesting site at Bahuda River mouth in Ganjam district of Odisha to lure Olive Ridley turtles to come over for mass nesting in 2019.
- A few hundred of endangered Olive Ridley turtles had nested at Bahuda River mouth coast in 2018.
- The new nesting point which is located around 20 km to south of Rushikulya rookery coast, stretches for around 3 km from Sunapur to Anantapur beach area.
- Gahirmatha marine sanctuary and Rushikulya rookery coast in Ganjam district of Odisha are main Olive Ridley Nesting site in Odisha.
- Odisha is home to about 50% of the world’s total population of Olive Ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) which are included in vulnerable category by the IUCN Red list and are protected under Schedule I of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 in India.
- Trading of the products manufactured from these turtles are also banned under Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
4-Mar-2017: Olive Ridleys' eggs destroyed due to shrinking coastal space.
Tens of thousands of eggs laid by Olive Ridley sea turtles in Gahirmatha Sanctuary(one of the world’s largest nesting grounds) in Odisha, are getting destroyed due to shrinking coastal space.
The ongoing mass nesting of the ridleys has enthused conservationists, but habitat decline is undoing the gains. Since the small island could not host all those that turned up this year, only 50% of eggs may survive.
A female sea turtle scoops beach sand out to lay 80 to 120 eggs, but its effort is undone when a second digs at the same place to lay its own. This season, turtles are estimated to have laid close to 60 million eggs along a 1,000-metre beach of Nasi II.
Wildlife staff have observed mass nesting for a month. Since only 1,000 metres is now suitable at Nasi II, there is not enough space. Of 100 turtles, eggs of only 50 survive.
Two bigger beaches with 200 hectares and 50 hectares at Ekakula Nasi and Nasi I island drew a mere 12 and 100 Olive Ridleys respectively.
Gahirmatha once had 32 km of beach and nesting area of 1,80,000 square metres. Research by B.C. Choudhury, former scientist, Wildlife Institute of India, showed that Nasi I and Nasi II had fragmented.
In the Visakhapatnam region, the Forest Department recorded 447 nests with 47,000 eggs, the highest so far.
24-Feb-2017: Mass nesting by Olive Ridleys in Odisha coast
A record-breaking mass nesting by 3.8 lakh endangered olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) took place at the Rushikulya rookery coast in Ganjam district of Odisha. Interestingly, no mass nesting had taken place at the site a year ago.
It was then suspected that several environmental factors, including chemical factors like salinity of the beach and the sea near the coast, may have prompted these marine reptiles to give the coast a miss in 2016.
According to experts, most mass nesting sites of olive ridley turtles in the world are located near river mouths, where salinity is low. However, a lot still needs to be explored with regard to the influence of the salinity factor as not much is known about the relation between mass nesting by these endangered turtles and coastline salinity.
This behaviour, however, has prompted experts to study turtle sensing superpowers. A sandbar emerged at the mouth of Rushikulya river near Purunabandha this year which prevented fresh water from the river from entering the sea directly. So the fresh water started flowing northward. This must’ve decreased the salinity of sea water near the coast towards north of the river mouth. Usually, mass nesting takes place between Gokharkuda and new Podampeta, where the effect of fresh river water diverted by the sandbar may be high.
Low salinity also means more small fish and insects, which are food for the turtles near the coast during mating and mass nesting seasons. The corrosive effect of salinity on eggshells cannot be ignored either.
Olive ridley turtles bury their eggs on the beach. These eggs incubate with the help of sand heat for 45 to 50 days. High sand salinity may damage eggshells, while low salinity will minimise the corrosive effect. It’s possible the Olive Ridleys took the salinity factor into account while nesting at Rushikulya rookery coast this year, but what remains unanswered is how they sensed it.
Several mysteries related to the life, migration and mass nesting of olive ridleys are yet to be unravelled. A proper study of sea salinity levels near the coast in relation to the extent of mass nesting during past years will have to be taken up to understand the relation between salinity and nesting behaviour.
8-Mar-2020: Illegal trade of Red Pandas in India and across borders
On World Wildlife Day, a new assessment of the poaching and illegal trade of Red Pandas Ailurus fulgens in India and the neighbouring countries of Nepal and Bhutan was released that finds the animals at risk of incidental snaring but not of targeted poaching, except in Nepal.
India is home to one of the two (sub)species of Red Panda which is found in the eastern and north-eastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests and the eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests, which geographically falls in China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, and northern Myanmar.
Due to its distribution in the higher reaches of the Himalayas, which have limited access, information about the illegal trade of Red Pandas was found to be patchy and difficult to collect, hence the latest study, an Assessment of illegal trade-related threats to Red Panda in India and selected neighbouring range countries.
Over a ten-year period from July 2010 to June 2019 the authors found neither India nor Bhutan had reported any incidences of poaching or illegal trade in Red Pandas, but in Nepal a total of 13 seizure records were reported between 2016 and 2019, accounting for a total of 29 pelts. All except two took place in Kathmandu.
Consultations with experts revealed a similar low-level incidence of Red Panda trade in Bhutan and India with one case of accidental trapping of a Red Panda in a snare in Jigme Dorjee National Park from Bhutan and six incidents of poaching accounting for six individual animals in India, aside from a 1999 case involving more than 20 pelts.
By contrast, in Nepal, experts there shared knowledge about 25 incidences of Red Panda poaching, involving approximately 55 animals and also claimed to have witnessed and/or have confirmed reports related to poaching on six occasions involving 15 animals.
The authors also carried out extensive interviews with local villagers across three states in northern India. In Arunachal Pradesh, a total of 968 people from 147 villages in 20 Districts reported one recent poaching incidence and six older cases in Anjaw District where they said Red Pandas get accidentally trapped in snares set for other wildlife species, in particular deer. They also reported a 2009 case when three Red Panda cubs were said to have been traded to a Bhutanese national in Lumla, Tawang District. In Dibang Valley villagers reported two recent instances of foreign tourists offering to buy any captured live Red Pandas.
In West Bengal, 171 interviewees had no specific knowledge of Red Panda poaching but said the area was visited by wildlife hunters from Nepal, while in Sikkim two thirds of the 761 people interviewed were aware of Red Pandas in their area and the species’ protected status.
“To protect Red Pandas fully it is important that community-based conservation and protection measures are implemented, including mitigation of non-targeted trapping practices. Cross border co-operation and co-ordination is also necessary for protection of wildlife that migrates beyond borders.”
The study was conducted by TRAFFIC’s India office to understand the impact of poaching and illegal trade on Red Pandas across India, Bhutan and Nepal with funding support from WWF Germany through their collaboration with the Association of Zoological Gardens of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
22-Feb-2020: Ten new migratory species protected under global wildlife agreement
The Thirteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP13) concluded in Gandhinagar, India, with resolutions and decisions adopted to help conserve migratory species globally.
“With COP13, the important role of CMS in protecting nature around the world has been strongly embraced”, affirmed CMS Executive Secretary Amy.
In addition to Asian elephants, jaguars and great Indian bustards, all slated to receive the strictest protection under Appendix I, Bengal floricans, little bustards, antipodean albatrosses and oceanic white-tip sharks also made the cut.
Meanwhile urials along with smooth hammerhead and tope sharks were listed as migratory species that would benefit from enhanced international cooperation and conservation actions.
Moreover, 14 species were targeted for newly agreed upon conservation plans.
“CMS is uniquely positioned to address the conservation of migratory species and their habitats, and to contribute to reversing the trends of species and biodiversity loss worldwide”, Ms. Fraenkel said.
Gandhinagar Declaration
Maintaining and restoring ecological connectivity is a top CMS priority, especially in managing migratory species and their habitats – as evidenced by the newly adopted Gandhinagar Declaration, which was affirmed by 130 party countries.
The Declaration calls for migratory species and the concept of “ecological connectivity” to be integrated and prioritized in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, which is expected to be adopted at the UN Biodiversity Conference in October.
Declining migratory species
The first-ever report on the Status of Migratory Species was presented at the conference.
In highlighting that the populations of most CMS-covered migratory species are declining, COP13 agreed that a more comprehensive review be undertaken to understand the status of individual species and the threats they face.
“The initial status report has been a real wake up call for the Convention, and Parties recognized, the importance of a more thorough analysis. CMS COP13 has given a clear mandate to prepare a flagship report on the status of migratory species which will give us a better idea of what is happening on the ground, and also provide a much needed tool for understanding where we need to focus our work,” the CMS chief said.
And the conference agreed on a number of cross-cutting policy measures to address threats to migratory species, such as integrating biodiversity and migratory species considerations into national energy and climate policy and promote wildlife-friendly renewable energy.
Indian hosts
During the conference, the first CMS COP to be inaugurated by a host-country Head of Government, three CMS Ambassadors were named, seven Migratory Species Champions were recognized and two sets of commemorative stamps were issued.
In his opening address, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to focus on the conservation of migratory birds along the Central Asian Flyway, and announced the establishment of an institutional research facility for the conservation of migratory birds and marine turtles, the reduction of pollution from micro-plastic and single-use plastic, and other things.
As COP13 host, India will assume the role of COP Presidency for the next three years.
“The spirit of ‘Athithi Devo Bhava’… will now resonate from Gandhinagar into the world: Migratory species connect the planet and together we welcome them home!”, concluded Executive Secretary Fraenkel.