Several hatched Olive Ridley turtle eggshells were found at Versova beach, Mumbai on Friday morning. The eggshells were found by Forest officers and locals. Later, Maharashtra forest department confirmed that the beach had, indeed, become a turtle nesting site after two decades.
Beach clean-up crusaders and morning walkers saw around 80 hatchlings waddling into the sea by the beach. Some naturalist and animal welfare groups raised questions about the authenticity of the phenomenon.
“There is no further cause for doubt about the authenticity of this wonderful event. We can confirm that Versova is a turtle nesting site as we have uncovered the eggshells. It is a truly inspiring discovery. This was missed by people who raised questions about this on Thursday. We probed further and found evidence,” said N Vasudevan, additional principal chief conservator of forest, state mangrove cell.
Beach clean-up crusader Afroz Shah and his team near Sagar Kutir Wadi spotted the hatchlings around 9.30am on Thursday. Later in the day, however, city-based environmentalists raised doubts after they could not spot any eggshells on the beach and asked the state to verify the authenticity of the phenomenon.
NGO Vanashakti on Thursday around 10 pm filed a complaint with the state mangrove cell for an inquiry into the event.
As per the state mangrove cell’s panchnama, filed on Friday morning, Prashant Deshmukh, range forest officer (western region), along with other officers, dug up a spot to the side of the 3×5 foot deep pit, and discovered several broken shells deep beneath the sand. “Twelve eggs had not hatched, and there were another four broken eggs with dead baby turtles in them,” Deshmukh said, adding that samples have been collected for testing.
“As of now, a total of 103 baby turtles have been counted, of which 80 made their way into the sea on Thursday, another seven have been rescued and released by animal rescue groups, 12 eggs have not hatched but the hatchlings are dead, and another four died,” he revealed.
Olive Ridleys are sea turtles found in the warm, tropical currents of the Indian and Pacific oceans. An endangered species, they travel thousands of kilometres in the ocean, with females returning to their original nesting sites within a minimum of two years to lay eggs.
“The possible first-ever nesting report of an Olive Ridley on the Mumbai coast has sure taken a mysteriously interesting turn with the finding of a pile of eggshells rather deep in the sand. Evidently, the methi (fenugreek) cultivation may have covered the exact spot and it is believed the hatchlings emerged from the sides of the cultivation pit, quite peculiarly so. For sure a most unusual nesting record of the species. But I feel it is premature to proclaim if Mumbai now has a turtle-nesting beach,” said Sunjoy Monga, ornithologist and naturalist writer.