‘Olive Ridley Turtles Fall In Line With Nature — It Carries Them Forth Safely'

R Suresh Kumar is a wildlife biologist at the department of endangered species management, the Wildlife Institute of India. An expert in migratory Olive Ridley turtles, which swim from Australia to Sri Lanka and India, Kumar shares insights with Times Evoke on how this marine species plans its 9,000 km-long voyage:

- R Suresh Kumar

The famous Olive Ridley turtle nests along the Indian coastline, which is about 7,500 kilometres long. The Olive Ridley is a tropical to subtropical subspecies, found in warm waters globally. It is fond of India — from the Gujarat coast to the Andamans and Lakshadweep to Odisha and Bengal, this species nests here annually. It journeys from foraging grounds off Australia to Sri Lanka and India, covering 9,000 kilometres.

Odisha has the right kind of nesting beaches, located by river mouths. The eastern coast, crisscrossed by the Kaveri in the south to the Ganga up north, is rich in river systems. These have deltaic areas with sandpits, which nesting turtles like.