The Chennai sea coast is a breeding ground for the endangered Olive Ridley turtles.The turtle walks are organised by the Students Sea Turtle Conservation Network (SSTCN) to increase the chances of survival of the Olive Ridley sea turtle. Student volunteers go in search of their nests at night, retrieve the eggs and take them to a hatchery.The Turtle walks route is a 10 km stretch from Neelankarai to Elliot’s beach
The public are taken along for the walk on Fridays and Saturdays.
During nesting season, from January till April, these turtles come ashore in large numbers, lay eggs in nests and go back to the sea and don’t ever come back to look after the nest or the eggs. Adult turtles return to the shore where they were born, for nesting. When the eggs hatch after 55 days, the hatch-lings make for the sea by instinct as the sea is a brighter source of light than the land.
The SSTCN organises walks during the nesting season to collect the eggs from the nests and put them in a hatchery so that when the hatch-lings come out, they can be safely released into the sea.
Visit here to know more about Turtle walk... http://sstcn.org/
