113 endangered Olive Ridley turtles released in Bay of Bengal

A total of 113 hatches of endangered Olive Ridley turtles have been released at the Hazampara area of the Bay of Bengal on Thursday. 

During that time, Kamal Sengupta, deputy executive director of CODEC, Professor Akter Hosen, director of Institute of Forestry and Environmental Science, Chattogram University, Professor Dr Bayezid Khan, environmental activist Mizanur Rahman Yousuf, Shital Kanti Nath, director of Nature and Life project and assistant director Narayan Das were present.

With a view to conserve the endangered species, non-government organisation Community Development Centre (CODEC) took an initiative under a project titled 'Nature and Life' and set up three hatcheries at the Hazampara area of Teknaf Upazila in Cox's Bazar. 

The workers collected about 10,895 eggs from the 10-kilometre-long beaches of the area over the last three months and kept them for hatching in a controlled environment.

"The project started with a hatchery three years ago. Now we have three which cover 10-km-long beaches in Teknaf," Shital Kanti Nath, project director, told The Business Standard.

"Till Thursday, we released 543 hatches of Olive Ridley turtles in our hatcheries and hope to release at least 5,000 more from the 10,895 eggs we have collected," he said.

The Olive Ridley turtle is one the endangered species among sea turtles in the world. These turtles often come up to the Cox's Bazar sea shores to lay eggs during winter.

Due to the unfavourable environment and movement of people along the sea beach, many turtles go back to sea without laying eggs. At times, local thieves steal the eggs laid by turtles and sell them off.