In India, the incredible story of turtle number 03233 who traveled 4,500 kilometers

The “Marco Polo of turtles” has completed a remarkable journey of several thousand kilometers, exclaims the Times of India. An “olive ridley turtle” – a species of turtle named for the olive color of its shell – tagged in 2021 has become the first of this species, considered vulnerable, to swim several thousand kilometers from the east coast of Orissa to the west coast of Maharashtra (in the south of the country), reports the Indian daily.

“Earlier this year, volunteers from the Maharashtra Forest Department found a solitary turtle nesting on Guhagar Beach in Ratnagiri,” reports The Indian Express . Upon examining it, they discovered its ring. The turtle had an identity – 03233 – and a story.

The researchers discovered that the turtle had made “a long and arduous journey of nearly 4,500 kilometers,” starting in Gahirmatha, in the state of Orissa, down the east coast, “perhaps skirting Sri Lanka, going up to Jaffna in the north of the island, turning around and going down to Thiruvananthapuram [Trivandrum] before going up the west coast and finally reaching the shores of Ratnagiri,” the Mumbai-based English-language daily details.

Turtle number 03233 was tagged by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) on March 18, 2021, in the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary in Orissa.

The adventurer is part of a group of 12,000 olive ridley sea turtles, whose flippers have been tagged to allow researchers to track their migration patterns and foraging areas.

The epic journey of turtle number 03233 is believed to be the first such migratory feat recorded among olive ridley sea turtles, which are known to be excellent navigators.

Scientists believe the turtle took a long route around Sri Lanka, but "it is possible that it took a shorter route through the Pamban Corridor," which connects Rameswaram Island to the Tamil Nadu mainland, Suresh Kumar, a senior scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), told the Indian Express.

Previously, researchers believed that olive ridley turtles from Sri Lanka arrived en masse in Orissa for nesting – every year, thousands of olive ridley turtles end up on the beaches of Orissa.

But this discovery suggests that "not all olive ridley turtles come to Orissa or the eastern coast for mass nesting and some move to the western coasts for nesting. This means we need to protect not only the eastern coasts but also the western coasts for the turtles," Basudev Tripathy of ZSI, who himself tagged turtle 03233, told the Mumbai daily.

This unprecedented journey marks the first confirmed case of a turtle of this species nesting on both the eastern and western coasts of India , according to The Better India website. It recommends:

“The turtle's intercoastal journey highlights the need for a pan-India approach to marine conservation in which states share data, collaborate, and anticipate nesting area shifts induced by climate or ocean changes.”

As for the traveling turtle, after laying 125 eggs on a white sand beach, it returned to the sea. “Will it swim to Orissa, where it began its journey?” asks the Indian Express . The rings on its flippers will surely tell us.