Satellite-tagged olive ridleys make their way to Goa

One of the two turtles makes its way into the sea after being satellite-tagged at Guhagar

The two olive ridley sea turtles that were radio-tagged by the Mangrove Cell and the Wildlife Institute of India at Ratnagiri's Guhagar beach recently have been providing the authorities with useful information. Both Bageshri and Guha (what the female turtles were named) have crossed over to Goa's nearshore waters after making a steady southward progress.

Slow and steady

On April 8, the Mangrove Cell of the Maharashtra Forest Department tweeted, "Both Bageshri and Guha have been steadily moving south and have crossed over to the nearshore waters of Goa. As of today both Bageshri and Guha have moved off South about 275 and 250 km straight line distance from Guhagar respectively."

Fast and furious

On March 31 , the Mangrove Cell had tweeted that both Bageshri and Guha continue to move South. It was also observed that interestingly, in the past one week, Bageshri overtook Guha and appears to be heading faster south and as of March 31 it had crossed Malvan. Guha on the other hand appeared to have slowed down in its movements and was moving close to the coast.

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On the night of February 21, a Wildlife Institute of India (WII) team, Mangrove Foundation, and the Maharashtra Forest Department's Ratnagiri Division patrolled the Guhagar beach, and two female olive ridley turtles that had come to nest on the beach, were restrained after they had nested. On February 23, the turtles were returned to the sea in the morning after the WII team fitted them with satellite transmitters.

The study

The Maharashtra coast has sporadic nesting of olive ridley sea turtles. Till now olive ridley sea turtles have been tagged only on the east coast of India. This is the first satellite tagging project of olive ridley sea turtles on the Western Coast of India. A research project ‘Tracking the migratory movements of olive ridley sea turtles off the coast of Maharashtra' has been commissioned by the Mangrove Foundation, Maharashtra Forest Department to the WII. This study will help understand the movements of olive ridley sea turtles off the coast of Western India.

The findings of this project will help find the population of olive ridley sea turtles on the western coast of India, their migration patterns, foraging grounds and their behaviour. The Mangrove Foundation, Mangrove Cell and Forest Department are planning to take up more such research initiatives to strengthen turtle conservation in Maharashtra.

2
No of turtles involved in study