Date:30/12/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/12/30/stories/2003123002742200.htm

National

Green turtles in a soup

By Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI Dec. 29 . From the Olive Ridley, the World Wide Fund For Nature - India (WWF-India) has turned its attention to the highly migratory Green turtles along the coast in Maharashtra and Gujarat, their natural habitat, and some selected islands of the Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Once common in the warm oceans of the world, Green turtles are becoming increasingly scarce as they are exploited for food (turtle soup is a delicacy for some), to make a certain oil used in cosmetics and bags and shoes made of their skin. The trade is illegal as Green turtles are notified as an "endangered species."

WWF-India proposes to facilitate the conservation of nesting sites of Green turtles by conducting awareness campaigns, particularly among the population near Malvan in Maharashtra and the Gulf of Kutch (near Jamnagar) and Junagadh along the Gujarat coast besides some sites in the Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands.

Green turtles (Chelonia mydas), named for the green colour of the fat under their shell, are actually black-brown or greenish in colour and a dome-shaped carapace distinguishes them from the rest of the turtle species. They are found in shallow tropical and sub-tropical waters. Green turtles cover huge distances between their feeding and nesting grounds. They normally swim along the coastline, rarely going into open waters.

Female turtles come to the coast between June and September to nest and lay about 100 eggs each time. They lay eggs about three to five times in a season but with an interval of two or more years. An extraordinary feature of the Green turtles is the accuracy with which they return to their natal beach for nesting.

Sea or marine turtles are believed to have first appeared more than 100 million years ago and represent a distinctive part of the earth's biodiversity. There are seven types of sea turtle: the Flatback, the Green, the Leatherback, the Loggerhead, the Hawksbill, the Kemp's and the Olive Ridley.