Recently on May 15, 2011, there was a news item that the forest officials of Odisha had released about 350 baby Olive Ridley turtles into the sea at Talasari beach located under Bhogarai block in Balasore district. The officials had located a bunch of Ridley Olive turtles laying eggs at Talasari beach along the coast of Bay of Bengal and provided protection to the turtles’ eggs. These eggs were protected by these personnel for three days with the help of some fencing. As the eggs were hatched, the hatchlings were released into the sea. Going back a few decades, it was only in 1974 that the phenomenon of mass nesting and laying of eggs by Olive Ridleys’ on the Orissa coast were first discovered and recorded.
But that is not really the full story. One Captain Alexander Hamilton described about the mass nestings in 1727- a good 284 years back and almost two and a half centuries before their recording in 1974. This is what he wrote: “About twelve leagues to the northward of Cunnaca, is the river's mouth of Ballasore where there is a very dangerous bar, sufficiently well known by the many wrecks and losses made by it. Between Cunnaca and Ballasore rivers there is one continued sandy bay, where prodigious numbers of sea tortoises resort to lay their eggs and a very delicious fish called the Pampleey come in shores, and are sold for two pence for hundred. Two of them are sufficient to dine a moderate man.”
(An extract from my forthcoming book on the French Balasore)
