New Beginnngs
Smriti who has been living in Goa for a while, called up sometime last year and spoke excitedly about witnessing the release of turtles into the sea. This was something we hoped to witness and since our visit to Goa was planned around Smriti's birthday, it was serendipity that it coincided with the month in which Olive Ridley turtles were being released into the sea water shortly after hatching at nesting sites around the beach. Alka, who heard of our proposed trip, made enquiries and found that the turtles were being released as they hatched from a quiet location on Goa's beaches.
It was good to learn that Olive Ridley turtles visited beaches other than those on the Orissa coastline. Magical indeed and happy making to think that from both sides of the Indian subcontinent, intrepid little turtles only a few hours old, were being released into the Bay of Bengal and into the Arabian Sea, to make their way into the vast oceans that spread out in front of them. We arrived at Morjim beach and contacted a forest official, Shivanand, who told us that there was a batch of turtles that would be released later in the evenig. At the beach we sat in front of a shack, sipping lemon water and chilled beer, devouring spring rolls and dense yellow chunks of pineapple whose sweetness can never be replicated by the pale cream versions that dominate the Delhi markets.
The sea air was balmy and sunset watching is a restful activity, so we continued to sit at a shack and watch the sky change as an orange-red sun, leaked its colours into the waiting waves and disappeared from the horizon, across the waters into the darkness of the night. The shacks were soon lit up and various offshore lights began to flash. The sky was filled with stars and a blood orange moon had taken the place of the sun, in the skies above the beach. Despite locations facing each other on the beach, the sun and the moon continued to dominate this cosmic drama of birth and movement. The turtle guardians wait for the beach crowds to thin down, allow the shacks to earn enough income and then monitor the journey of the turtles, asking humans to remain still, warning of how the little turtles could be easily crushed under careless feet.
Shivanand had told us that it would be well past 8.30 pm when the turtles would be released. There was a moderate audience that had gathered. None of these people were heading home or hanging out at the shacks. We were allowed to see the turtles that were to be released and advised not to use the flash while photographing the tiny creatures that were flippering in huddled company in a blue plastic container containing sea water.
We went into one of the rooms of the nesting site and watched the hatchlings fascinatedly. We were also shown the shell of an Olive Ridley turtle, as well as a preserved turtle in embalmig fluid. The Olive Ridley turtle is not a very large turtle and the name Olive refers not to someone named Olive but is the colour of the carapace of an adult turle which is olive yellow green in colour. The name Ridley, possibly English in origin continues to mystify. Ridley as a surname has been around since the 13th century and apprently people with the surname can be found all over the world. I searched through several Ridley family coats of arms but found nary a turtle. So the name contiues to remain a riddle.

The baby hatchlings are gray in colour when they hatch but look almost black, when wet. These tiny turtlets are released under cover of darkness into the ocean, as the waves come closer to the shore during high tide. Even when the turtlets hatch during the day, they are released only under cover of darkness, as this gives them optimal chances for survival, away from predatory birds or dogs and other creatures inhabiting the coast.
We are introduced to Rajan Halanth and his compeer Gyanendra. Rajan, Shivanand tells us, has been caring for the turtles since 1997. We chat with him. He expalins that he was a fisherman at Morjim and discovered four nesting sites in 1997, which he protected from local dogs and human predators. His work, labour intensive and driven by love, is about locating the nesting sites of the Olive Ridleys which arrive en masse on the shores of the beach to lay eggs. Apparently, these female turtles return to the beach on which they were hatched after twenty odd years, dig conical nests with their hind flippers and lay eggs. When the egg laying is complete the female turtle swims back into the sea.
Rajan and his team, collect the eggs, nest by nest, and locate them in a man made nesting area that is cordoned off from the beach. The eggs, between 100 to 150 in each nest are first collected from the nests built by the turtle and then rearranged in the same manner in the human controlled nesting habitat. The egg collectors are trained to rearrange the eggs in the same manner in which they were found, with the eggs that are taken out last from the bottom of the nest going in first into the new nest.
It is a huge success story, as this nurturing space now actively connects humans with these gentle reptiles. In 1997, Rajan tells us there were four nests. He began to rehouse the turtle eggs in a sheltered spot. He managed to save four hundred eggs in 1997, from around four nests. Now in 2025, 150 nests have been rehoused, and thre is a possibility of around 1500 hatchlings that will be sent to sea.
The weather has been inclement and the baby turtles have been hatching. Rajan is thankful for the support the forest department provides them with. He has chosen to dedicate his life and time to the nurture of turtlings. Some eggs go bad, he tells us, and the ratio of male and female turtles depends on the temperature; the warmer it is, the more females will be born. This has been a good year for the Olive Ridleys at Morjim.The nests have only been on the increase since 1997.
The baby turtles are brought out on the beach in a trough. A small corridor is created ten metres away from the water. This is to enable the babies, the females, to create a location map inside their heads of the beach they were born on. They will remain in the ocean for very long years, but when it is time to lay eggs, they will return to the beach on which they were born, unerringly.
Speaking of survival rates, Rajan says that the one percent survival rate that is offered up is not accurate. According to him, there is a 25 percent survival rate, which sounds positive. He also points out that the seas are now depleted and there are far less fish in the ocean now, and that is another reason that more hatchlings have a better chances of survival in the water.
Someone in the crowd wonders aloud if that will not upset the balance in nature...but now, the turtles are tipped over into the sand and the light of the moon and a torch guides them in the direction of the ocean. They move unsteadily in ones and twos in the direction of the light and ocasionally get stuck in the sand or move sidewards. They are carefully picked up by the young men in charge of operations and put back on the correct track. It is a few moments of sheer magic as the little creatures move in the direction of the sea. The advancing waves knock them back on to the beach , but they wiggle in the wet sand, find their footing and allow themselves to be lifted up by the next wave.
The viewing humans are asked not to move as the hatchlings thrown back by the waves could be very easily trampled upon. The turtle protectors, lift the hapless turtles away from giant feet and set them in the direction of the wave again. In a few minutes all fifty and more hatchlings have set out on their journey. It is a portentuous occasion, as the vast ocean and the darkness swallow them up. They have no escorts, no guides and zero parenting but will have to rely on their own instincts on this long voyage. There is soon no trace of them.
Faewell brave voyagers, and when the time is right, twenty years later, may more of you return to these beaches and continue to proliferate and may there be more Shivanands and Rajans to provide shelter and nurture in the years to come.