Millions of newborn Olive Ridley turtles swarm beach in Odisha

For the lovers of turtles, an Indian beach could be a delightful sight. The newborn Olive Ridley turtles emerge from the pits under the sand of the spectacular Rushikulya Rookery coast and crawl towards the sea in the eastern state of Odisha. The much-awaited mass hatching of the sea creatures began last week at one of the famous major mass nesting sites in the country. A record number of mother turtles had reached the coast to lay eggs in February and around 30 million baby turtles are expected to come out of the nests in the next week. “Each nest contains around 100 to 150 eggs and on an average, 80 hatchlings come out of each nest. This means over 30 million hatchlings are expected to come out this year,” said Behrampur Divisional Forest Officer Ashis Behera. Odisha is the mating and nesting ground of 50 percent of the world's Olive Ridley turtles, the smallest and the most abundant sea turtles. In a rare natural phenomena, the baby Olive Ridleys grow without their mothers as the female turtles return to the sea, after laying eggs.