World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

INDIAINDIA:MAINLANDPOPULATION :Chelonia mydasNesting sites Nesting of any significance is restricted to the state ofGujarat (Bhaslcar, 1984b>. Although C. mydas has been noted at sea at manypoints around the coast of mainland India, nesting is very sporadic, or isunrecorded, in most peninsular states. Very sparse nesting was found atseveral sites in Thane District of Maharashtra during a March 1983 survey(Shaikh, 1984). In Gujarat, nesting occurs sparsely along the coast ofKutch District (forming the northern shore of the Gulf of Kutch), and,locally in moderate numbers, along the southern shore of the Gulf and aroundthe west and south coast of the Saurashtra Peninsula, eastward to Chanch(Bhaslcar, 1984a).Nesting numbers In Gujarat, Bhaslcar (198Ab) recorded seven C. mydasnests on a 30 km stretch of coast east from Jakhau in western Kutch, and 866nests around the Saurashtra Peninsula (excluding islands in the Gulf ofKutch). On the Saurashtra coast, nesting was more dense on the westernportion, between Okha and Veraval, than further south and east: 3.88nests/km on a 200 km stretch in the west compared with 0.36 nests/km on a250 km stretch in the south. The 110 km of coast between Porbander andVeraval had a mean density of 4.58 nests/km in December 1980 (504 total) and4.2 nests/km in October 1981. A 2 km beach south of the Indian Navy DefenceSecurity Corps station at Okha held 39 C. mydas nests on 10 October 1981(Bhaskar, 1984b).Nesting season According to Bhaskar (1984b) C. mydas in this regionnests between July and January.Foraging sites Whilst C. mydas appears to occur, at least sporadically,in waters around much of mainland India, feeding concentrations are known toexist in only two areas: the Gulf of Kutch In Gujarat and the Gulf of Mannarand Palk Strait between the state of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. These areasalso include mainland India's chief coral reefs and seagrass beds. Turtleshave also been recorded close inshore around the Saurashtra coast (Bhaskar,1984b). Annandale (1915) mentioned finding a Green Turtle in Chllka Lakewhose stomach was packed with seaweed, indicating foraging areas nearby.Migration No specific information. Bhaskar (1984b) speculates that theC. mydas population feeding in the Gulf of Kutch may be the same populationthat nests on the Hawkes Bay and Sandspit beaches at Karachi.POPULATION : Eretmochelys ImbrlcataNesting sites Nesting in mainland India appears to be very sparse andsporadic, although some nests are likely to go unrecorded. For example, asolitary E. imbrlcata nest was found on 28 December 1980 on a beach usedmainly by Olive Ridley Lepldochelys ollvacea on the Tlrunelveli coast ofTamil Nadu (Fernando, 1983). Similarly, the species has been recorded veryoccasionally along the east coast of the peninsula, off Andhra Pradesh andOrissa (Kar, pers. comm. , 1985) and nesting may occur sporadically. Eightanimals were reported caught in a single seine net in the Sunderbans(Bhaskar, 1984c), and a single Hawksblll was observed on the beach ofBhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary (Kar, 1986).231