The enactment of a unique natural phenomenon – birth of baby turtles sans mother – at the idyllic Gahirmatha beach off Bay of Bengal has left the wildlife lovers elated.

Lakhs of hatchlings have broken out of their eggshells in the past 48 to 72 hours and crawled towards the seawaters. The emergence of baby turtles marks the grand culmination of annual sojourn of Olive turtles along the Odisha coast which incidentally endowed the World’s largest nesting ground of these aquatic animals at Gahirmatha beach.

The annual sojourn of Olive Ridley sea turtles for mass nesting otherwise called as ‘arribada’ had come to an end  at  Gahirmatha marine sanctuary in Kendrapara district with as many as 5.12 lakh female turning up at the beach turtles to lay eggs from 9 March.

The emergence of hatchlings would last for at least seven to ten days. The number of babies would swell considerably in the coming days, said an official of Rajnagar Mangrove (Wildlife) Division

The whole of Nasi-2 Island is jam-packed with baby turtles and the wildlife officials of Bhitarkanika national park stationed at these nesting grounds were sole witness to this unique natural heritage involving the birth of babies sans mother, said forest officials.

Tourists and researchers were denied entry to savour the unique natural heritage keeping in view the fact that the unmanned islands is located in close vicinity of Wheeler’s island defence test range centre, a prohibited territory.

The babies broke out of the shackles of eggshells and wandered aimlessly around the sandy beach for nearly an hour before making their way to swirling seawater, narrated wildlife staff.

It’s a rare visual treat as the delicate babies with mothers nowhere in sight generated hissing noise thus creating soothing cacophony. Later, they made a beeline towards the sea.

After the eggs are incubated under natural process, the hatchlings come out after 45/55 days’ hiatus. The phenomenon of babies’ emergence from the nests is a unique proposition in itself as “babies grow sans mother.”

The mortality rate of hatchlings is exceedingly high as one out of a thousand survives the life cycle to grow into an adult.