Kendrapara: Lakhs of hatchlings of olive ridley sea turtles were found to have been buried alive at Gahirmatha nesting ground as the babies failed to emerge out of pits due to compaction of sand particles caused by recent spells of thundershower.

It's a near-catastrophe situation. At least one crore turtles' hatchlings were expected to emerge out of eggshells. But thundershowers have resulted in the death of lakhs of baby species.

Bodies of lakhs of baby turtles were spotted buried inside the sandy pits. As the sand mass got compact following torrential rain, the babies got stuck inside the nests after breaking out of eggshells.

"The babies were forced to die as they were not strong enough to break open the nesting pits," said divisional forest officer Bimal Prasanna Acharya.

Though a huge congregation of about 6.67 lakh turtles had made us jubilant this year, the end result has upset us. The spectre of death of the hatchlings has left us shocked, he said.

The evening hours are ideal for emergence of the hatchlings from eggshells. The phenomenon of emergence of turtle hatchlings had commenced on April 23. However, thundershower hit the beach almost uninterrupted ever since.

The beach became wet and compact following the thundershower. The hatchlings were not strong enough to come out of the compacted sand and were buried alive in the nesting pits.

The forest staff on duty on the nesting ground found the carcass of hatchlings after digging up the pits where the mother turtles had earlier laid eggs.

According to a conservative estimate, the female turtles had laid more than two crore eggs. So far, only around 27 lakh babies have emerged from the eggshells.

Earlier, nesting turtles smashed millions of eggs while loitering around to find a congenial spot to dig pit and lay eggs. The turtles, who were not aware of the existence of the nests, were sighted digging up the spot dismantling the already existing nests and eggs.

Each female turtle lays about 100 to 120 eggs. Hatchlings emerge out of the eggshells after 45 to 50 days of incubation.

The mortality rate of hatchlings is very high as one out of a thousand survives the life cycle to grow into an adult. So, the turtle conservation programme has suffered a major setback following the large-scale death of hatchlings.

"Nature's fury has turned the Gahirmatha beach into a burial ground of baby turtles. It was beyond our control," said Acharya.