Kundapur rolls out clean beach for Olive Ridleys

Two groups in Kundapur cleaned its best beach of trash and also initiated efforts to monitor turtle movements in the area.

•  Kundapur, a town in coastal Karnataka’s Udupi district.
•   The stretch from Kodi to Beejadi is one of the few places on India’s west coast that hosts Olive Ridleys during their nesting season from November to April.
•   The animals also visit sites on the east coast, such as Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and the Gahiramatha and Rushikulya rookeries in Odisha’s Kendrapara and Ganjam districts.
•   The turtles did not visit Kundapur between 2015 and 2021, when the entire Kodi-Beejadi beach was clogged with waste.
  • Two local groups, the ‘Clean Kundapur Project’ and the Field Services and Inter-cultural Learning (FSL), along with the local forest department, began efforts to clean the beach.
    
    

About Olive Ridley Turtles:

• They are the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world.
• Major nesting sites in India:Rushikulya rookery coast (Odisha), Gahirmatha beach (Bhitarkanika National park) and mouth of the Debi River.
• Scientific name: Lepidochelys olivacea; also known as the Pacific ridley sea turtle.
• Presence: Found in warm waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.
• Conservation Status: 
• IUCN Red List: Vulnerable
• Schedule I of Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972
• CITES Appendix I 
• Features:
• Known for their unique mass nesting called Arribada, where thousands of females come together on the same beach to lay eggs. 
• These are carnivores and feed mainly on jellyfish, shrimp
• The eggs hatch in 45 to 60 days, depending on the temperature of the sand and atmosphere during the incubation period.