Biodiversity · Sea turtles

Olive Ridley sea turtles of Honavar

Every winter, Olive Ridley sea turtles crawl up Tonka Beach at night to lay their eggs where the Sharavathi River meets the Arabian Sea. Local fishermen guard the nests until the hatchlings run for the sea.

100–150eggs in each nest

45–60 daysfor the eggs to hatch

Nov–Aprnesting season at Tonka

1,12,063eggs protected by the Honavar Forest Division, 1984 to 2023

54,850hatchlings released, 1984 to 2023

Meet the Olive Ridley

The Olive Ridley is named for the olive-green colour of its shell. It is one of the smallest sea turtles in the world and one of the most widespread, living in the warm waters of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Females return to nest on the beach where they were born, sometimes after travelling thousands of kilometres. Each one lays 100 to 150 eggs in a pit in the sand, covers it and slips back into the sea. About two months later the hatchlings dig their way out, usually at night. They head for the brightest horizon: the sea.

In Indian tradition the turtle is Kurma, the second avatar of Vishnu, who carried Mount Mandara on his back during the churning of the ocean (Samudra Manthana). The Olive Ridley is protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN.

The nesting beach

Tonka Beach

Tonka is the long sand spit on the Kasarkod side of Honavar, ending at the mouth of the Sharavathi River. Its quiet, dark beach is where the turtles nest. Odisha has India's famous mass nestings, but solitary nesting beaches like Tonka matter too: hatching success is often higher on them than on crowded arribada beaches.

The fishing families of Tonka are the turtles' first guardians. When they spot tracks at dawn they alert the Karnataka Forest Department. Together they fence the nest or move the eggs to a safe hatchery. When the eggs hatch, the community gathers to release the hatchlings, sometimes with a small puja for Kurma.

Read the nesting diary →

Fishermen worship the first hatchlings of the 2023 season with Forest Department officials, 10 February 2023

A fisherman and his child release hatchlings into the sea

Not just Tonka

Nesting beaches around Honavar

Forest Department records cover nesting beaches in villages along the Honavar coast: Apsarakonda, Kasarkod (with Tonka), Karki, Mallukurva, Haldipur and Pavinakurve. The busiest is the 3 km stretch from Apsarakonda to Pavinakurve. A record 83 females nested there in 2023, compared with about 35 to 40 a year across the Honavar division. The department has run a hatchery at Haldipur. Fishers along the coast also report and guard nests.