CANACONA: Clean waters and white sands, a perfect place to experience peace and tranquility; Agonda and Galgibaga beaches have been visited by hordes of tourists during the past few years.
But these southern shores have been an age-old nesting spot for Olive Ridley turtles; and with their numbers increasing since the last few years, locals have suggested that it has proved that the both man and turtles can coexist side by side at least in the most decorated beach of Agonda.
From time immemorial, these sea turtles have been the only visitors, who arrived before humans on the beaches of Agonda and Galgibaga, the two beaches reserved for turtle nesting with the intention of ovipositing.
Since the late nineties when Goa first took the first step towards turtle conservation, these beaches of Goa have seen a steady stream of these flipped visitors. Olive Ridley turtles begin their arrival to the shores by the month of November. However, in recent years, the breeding season has been delayed to the months of December-May. Scientists have attributed climatic change as the reason that has brought about this change.
Goa, being one of the few States on the western coast of India to host turtles nesting sites, has progressed by leaps and bounds in its initiative to protect the Olive Ridley turtles.
The forest dept on its own is guarding these sites during the nesting season and this has shown outstanding results in the increase in numbers of the marine mammals along with the increase in the number of hatchlings which are released into the surf zone of these beaches.
Moreover, turtle eggs are now rigidly conserved by the locals as well as tourists who have come to understand the importance of these flipped visitors, as the presence of these endangered chelonians have gained worldwide recognition for the turtle nesting beaches in Goa.
Former Sarpanch Barsat Naik Gaonkar and local tourism stakeholder from Agonda believes that the tourism industry has had a positive effect on turtle nesting in Agonda.
“Looking at the data of the Agonda Forest Department, there has been a big increase in the number of Olive Ridley turtles visiting Agonda beach during the hatching period. Earlier, the numbers ranged from two to a maximum of eight during the years of 2005 to 2014 and now the department has recorded an average of 20 Olive Ridley turtles visiting Agonda beach to lay eggs, after the the commencement of tourism activities on a big scale” said Gaonkar.
On the other hand the Olive Ridley turtles have shown a dislike for the Galgibaga beach wherein the arrivals have seen a decreasing trend post 2015.
Another local tourist stakeholder from Agonda, believes that turtles are aware of its surrounding with regard to the human activities on the beach and reiterated that locals have wholeheartedly helped the forest officials deputed at the beaches in their turtle conservation programme.
“Artificial lights pervading on the beaches are brought to a minimum and noise reduction has also been emphasised. Slowly but steadily, just like the tourists, the numbers of turtle visits have also began to rise, much to the joy of turtle conservationists, NGOs, marine life lovers, tourists and the locals themselves at Agonda has shown that man and animals can co-exist together,” the local added.
