Olive Ridley hatchlings born with mothers nowhere in sight

Olive Ridley hatchlings are emerging from eggshells at the Gahirmatha nesting ground in Odisha's Kendrapara district and started crawling towards the sea, a senior forest official said.

Since Tuesday, the hatchlings are emerging from the eggshells with mother turtles nowhere in sight, forest officials said.

The entire Nasi-2 island is teeming with baby turtles and the wildlife officials of Bhitarkanika national park stationed at these nesting grounds were sole witness to this unique natural phenomenon involving the birth of babies sans mothers, the forest oficials said.

While females of most species are known to guard their eggs, the Olive Ridleys dig a pit in the sand and lay their eggs. They cover up the pit in which the eggs are laid before heading back to the sea.

The phenomenon of the birth of babies sans mothers marks the culmination of the annual visit of the turtles along Odisha coast, billed as the world"s largest nesting ground of these aquatic animals at the Gahirmatha beach.

So far over one lakh hatchings have come out of the eggshells and the figure will rise manifold in the coming days, Bimal Prasanna Acharya, Divisional Forest Officer, Rajnagar Mangrove (wildlife) Forest Division, said.

It is expected to continue for at least a week, he said.

The hatchlings are literally jostling for space on the beach to loiter around before taking their final plunge into the seawater, he said.

"The one-kilometre beach is virtually littered with hatchlings," the DFO said.

Around 6.70 lakh turtles had turned up at the beach last month to lay eggs on the nesting beach, they said.

Tourists and researchers were denied entry to the Nasi-2 island to witness the rare natural phenomenon in view of the fact that the unmanned islands is located in close vicinity of Wheeler"s island defence test range centre, a prohibited territory.