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Olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) turtles are found in the waters off the coast of Orissa, along the Bay of Bengal, between October and May. Dash and Kar (1990), based on evidence from tag returns and observations by the Indian Coast Guard, describe the breeding migration of olive ridley turtles taking a northerly course through the coastal waters off Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh prior to their arrival in Orissa. Oliver (1946) and Deraniyagala (1953) have reported large concentrations of olive ridley turtles in the coastal waters of Sri Lanka migrating northwards during September and November. However, very little is known about the post-nesting movements of olive ridley turtles at Orissa.

Olive ridley arribadas have been recorded at three rookeries at Orissa: 1) Gahirmatha along the northern Orissa coast, 2) Robert Island, and 3) Rushikulya along the southern Orissa coast (see Figure 1). As a part of the ongoing sea turtle research programme of the Wildlife Institute of India, nesting sea turtles are being tagged at all three rookeries. Between 12-17 March 1997, an estimated 15,000 olive ridley turtles were recorded as having nested at the Robert Island sea turtle rookery. During this arribada, 1200 turtles were tagged. One of these turtles was subsequently recovered about 22 nautical miles from the beach of Kalmunai, eastern Sri Lanka on 27 April 1997. This was reported to us by a Sri Lankan fisherman. The straight line distance between the tagging and recapture site is 1500 km. To date this is the first recovery for an olive ridley turtle tagged at Orissa outside of Indian waters.

Figure 1. Olive ridley turtle nesting sites in Orissa, India.

DERANIYAGALA, P.E.P. (1953). A coloured atlas of some vertebrates from Ceylon. Vol. 2. Tetrapod Reptilia, Ceylon National Museum Publication. 101pp.

OLIVER, J.A. (1946). An aggregation of Pacific sea turtles. Copeia 1946:103.