Lakhs of baby Olive Ridley turtles crawl towards sea from Odisha's Gahirmatha beach

Kendrapara: Lakhs of baby Olive Ridley turtles broke out of their eggshells and crawled towards the Bay of Bengal without their mothers at Gahirmatha beach in Odisha's Kendrapara district.

The mass hatching, which is underway over the last three days, marks the culmination of the annual sojourn of the Olive Ridley turtles.

'Arribada' or the annual journey of the Olive Ridley turtles to Gahirmatha, the world's largest nesting site for the aquatic species, to lay eggs ended on March 9, with as many as 5.12 lakh female turtles turning up this year, officials said.

"The hatching of Olive Ridley turtles lasts for seven to 10 days. The number of babies breaking out of their shells would swell considerably over the next few days," an official of the Rajnagar Mangrove (Wildlife) Division said.

The site has been made off the limits for tourists and only forest officials of Bhitarkanika National Park were witness to the annual event.

"The tiny turtles broke out of the eggshells and wandered aimlessly on the beach for an hour before making their way to the sea," a forest personnel said. "The newborns make a hissing sound, which gets amplified to a soothing cacophony as lakhs of hatchlings cry out together," he said.

The mother turtles bury the eggs beneath the sand and the eggs receive natural incubation, hatching after 45-55 days.

However, mothers leave the beach by then, leaving the babies to face the world alone.

The mortality rate among the Olive Ridley babies is very high as only one out of 1,000 reach adulthood, another forest official said.