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Marine Turtle Newsletter 98:3-4, © 2002

Marine Turtle Newsletter-Online

Recent Sightings of the Green Turtle Chelonia mydas on the Coast of Andhra Pradesh, India

Basudev Tripathy & B.C. Choudhury
Wildlife Institute of India, P.O.Box # 18, Chandrabani, Dehradun – 248 001, Uttaranchal, India. (E-mail:tripathyb@yahoo.co.uk)

The green turtle, Chelonia mydas, has a fairly wide but scattered distribution in India. Nesting has been recorded in the Gulf of Kutchh, Gujarat (Bhaskar 1978; Rajagopalan et al.1996; Sundarraj et al.2002), Maharastra coast in Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri district (Giri 2001; Shaikh 1983; Rajagopalan et al.1996) and Quilon coast of Kerala (Shanmugasundaram 1968). In the Lakshadweep islands of Arabian Sea, this species is fairly common (Bhaskar 1978; Lal Mohan 1989). In the east coast of India, along the Bay of Bengal however, nesting green turtles have been recorded only in Gulf of Mannar, Tamil Nadu (Bhaskar 1981; Bhupathy & Saravan 2001; Kuriyan 1950; Rajagopalan et al.1996; Whitaker 1977) and Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Andrews et al. 2001; Bhaskar 1993). Bhaskar (1984) based on his survey, reported green turtle as occurring close or in coral reef areas with rocky algal growth and sea grasses; these areas were considered to be the preferred foraging sites for this species.

Except the Gulf of Mannar area in Tamil Nadu, there have been no records of nesting green turtles on the east coast, though several workers have recorded juvenile green turtle being caught in fishing nets or dead green turtles washed ashore (Bhaskar 1981; Biswas 1984; Bivash Pandav pers. comm). In all cases these have been juvenile or sub-adults of curved carapace length not exceeding 55 cm.

This note describes more recent sightings of green turtles along the Andhra Pradesh coast. Andhra Pradesh is adjacent to the mass nesting ground of olive ridley sea turtles in Orissa. The state has a coastline of 980 km with varied inter-tidal beach substratum. The northern Andhra Pradesh coast (370 km) is predominantly rocky interspersed with sandy beaches and the central Andhra Pradesh coast (205 km) is with the delta of Godavari and Krishna River is interspersed with mangroves, mudflats and occasional stretches of sandy shore. The southern Andhra Pradesh coast (310 km) is predominantly vast stretches of sandy beaches (Tripathy & Choudhury 2001).

From May 2000 to April 2001, a survey was conducted along the Andhra Pradesh nesting beaches, during which two dead green turtles were encountered (Table 1). From morphometric measurements of these two turtles it appears that both were sub-adults. In addition, on 7th February 2001, a dead female green turtle was found washed ashore near Jodugulapalem, about 5 km north of Visakhapatnam city and on 5th March 2001, a partially decomposed sub-adult green turtle was found washed ashore near the Rushikonda beach adjacent to Bimunipatnam. No injury marks were present on the carapace and plastron of any of the specimens, and it is suspected that deaths were caused by incidental capture and drowning. Intensive near-shore fishing takes place between Visakhapatnam and Bimunipatnam, a distance of nearly 25 km (Tripathy & Choudhury, 2001). Further, the incidental capture of 79 olive ridley and green turtles at fish landing centers in Andhra Pradesh during the 1985-86 season has been previously reported, although the specific composition of the incidental catch was not reported (Rajagopalan et al. 1996).



Table 1. Details of two green turtles found along the coast of Andhra Pradesh, India (CCL-Curved Carapace Length; CCW-Curved Carapace Width; PL-Plastron Length; PW-Plastron Width).

The nearshore waters in the vicinity of both locations where green turtles have stranded are predominantly rocky with a luxuriant growth of seaweeds viz. Gracillaria verrucosa, G. corticata, Sargassum polycystum, Grafeloupia spp. and Hypnia spp. Our sightings are significant as they might indicate that green turtles use the Andhra Pradesh coastal areas as feeding grounds, or possibly migratory pathways. These records come after a gap of 18 years, but the species may be more common in this area given the few field surveys, which were conducted during this period. Regular surveys in the area may more accurately determine the status of the green turtles along the coast of Andhra Pradesh. Interviews with fishermen in the area suggested that the green turtles may nest on the beaches of Andhra Pradesh, albeit very rarely. This is yet to be confirmed.

Acknowledgements: We are thankful to the GOI – UNDP Sea turtle Project for funding support, Director, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun, for permission to carry out the work and the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department for logistical support.

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