JOIN USOlive Ridley turtles lay eggs on Honnavar beach
Exactly a month after the Karnataka High Court binned a plea of local fishermen, opposing setting up of a private port at Kasarkdod Tonka in Honnavar taluk of Uttara Kannada district — based on a report filed by the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), Chennai — two critically endangered Olive Ridley sea turtle sneaked in the pitch of the darkness of Sunday and laid eggs on the beach.
NCSCM, which had based its finding on ‘erroneous reading’ of GPS of the Forest Department had submitted a report to the Court stating that the Olive Ridley sea turtle lay their eggs, some nautical miles inside the sea and not on the beach of Honnavar.
On Sunday morning, locals who noticed the ‘flap prints’ of the turtle that had visited the beach late in the night and returned to sea after laying eggs, informed the forest department officials. Later, the officials of Honnavar Range located the spot where the turtles had laid eggs and erected a fence to protect the hatchery.
Marine Biologist Dr Prakash Mesta, who has been monitoring these sea creatures' birth cycle for the past two decades said Olive Ridley turtles have been nesting on these shores for centuries now and Saturday night’s incident is no different. “The high court was misled by a report that wrongly calculated the GPS readings as mentioned by the Forest Department,” he said and added that it is not for the first time that Forest Department officials are making arrangements to protect these endangered turtles.
A few months ago, the forest department officials in the presence of local court judge and students had released more than 144 hatchlings of the turtle into the sea, he said and added that the courts have to reconsider their decision and prevent the construction of a private port on the beach.
Local fishermen also fear that those who are in favour of the proposed port might destroy the eggs to wipe out the evidence (of turtles' nesting ground). They demanded the authorities take steps to protect the eggs and thereby conserve the endangered turtle species.
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