Overview
- Thousands of newborn turtles are now emerging at the Rushikulya river mouth in Odisha and crawling toward the Bay of Bengal.
- Forest staff erected beach fences and deployed teams from Old Podampeta to Siddharth Nagar with Coast Guard support and tighter tourist controls.
- Forest Department records list 2,05,293 nesting females this season, a total a local forester said was lower than in recent years.
- More than 2,50,000 eggs were protected by officials and local volunteers to boost the number of hatchlings that reach the surf.
- Hatchlings break out after roughly 45–50 days and follow the brightest horizon, so cutting artificial light helps more survive a stage when only a tiny fraction reach adulthood.