CHENNAI: Despite witnessing a tragic start to the nesting season as more than 100 Olive Ridley turtles washed ashore dead along Chennai coast, the State Forest Department has located the very first nests of the season near Besant Nagar and Tiruvanmiyur.

A source from the forest department said that two nests were found in the early hours of Sunday and eggs were shifted to hatcheries for safe keeping.

“Hatchery in Besant Nagar is fully operational and more hatcheries will be set up in Neelankarai and Kovalam. Exercise to locate nests will be conducted throughout the nesting season and eggs will be kept safe in the hatcheries until they hatch,” an official said.

The Olive Ridley turtle nesting season typically begins in December and continues until around April along the Tamil Nadu coast. The State government has already intensified patrol along the coasts and the waters to prevent trawl fishing, which is cited as the season for turtle deaths.

“An Elite Force has been deployed in Chennai to patrol the sea. Most of the turtles that washed ashore died due to entanglement in trawl nets. Turtles should come to the surface every few minutes for breathing but entanglement in nets limits their mobility,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the department has decided to tag 10 turtles with telemetry devices and 500 turtles with flipper tags during the current season to study their movement pattern. Telemetry tagging will be carried out by Wildlife Institute of India and flipper tagging will be carried out by Advanced Institute for Wildlife Conservation (AIWC).