Turtle travels 1,000 km in 51 days from Odisha to Andhra coast

Kendrapara (Odisha), May 16 – An Olive Ridley turtle tagged with a satellite-based tracking device at Gahirmatha beach in Odisha’s Kendrapara district has travelled nearly 1,000 kilometers in 51 days to reach the coast of Andhra Pradesh, a forest official said on Friday.

Before reaching Andhra Pradesh, the turtle passed through the marine waters of Sri Lanka, Puducherry, and Tamil Nadu, the official noted.

"The turtle travelled through the sea territories of Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry before arriving at the Andhra Pradesh coast, covering a distance of approximately 1,000 km in 51 days," the official added.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Prem Shankar Jha stated that the Wildlife Institute of India’s latest satellite tracking initiative detected the tagged turtle now swimming in the coastal waters of Andhra Pradesh.

In a similar case, a turtle tagged in Odisha four years ago recently returned to the coast of Ratnagiri in Maharashtra—about 3,500 km away—to lay eggs.

Olive Ridley turtles are also known to nest in large numbers near the Rushikulya river mouth in Ganjam district and Devi river mouth in Puri district.

According to officials, around 3,000 turtles are tagged with tracking devices every year. However, experts believe that at least one lakh turtles need to be tagged to gain better insights into their breeding biology, migration patterns, developmental rates, and feeding grounds.

Odisha’s forest department began the tagging initiative in 1999, and two tagged turtles were later spotted off the Sri Lankan coast. The project was suspended for some years but resumed in 2021 under the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).

Between 2021 and 2024, approximately 12,000 turtles have been tagged in the nesting grounds near Gahirmatha and the Rushikulya river mouth, officials said.