A bright spot for turtles: Olive ridleys are recovering in India, but still at risk

VELAS, India — Little kids giddily squeal as a baby sea turtle, flippers flapping, lurches toward the water with the grace of a drunk lunging for a cab at closing time. Tourists applaud as about a dozen more palm-sized hatchlings stumble into the sea.

The tourists had gathered at daybreak on an April day for the Velas Turtle Festival, on the western Indian coast, where volunteers invite visitors to watch them release baby turtles from a hatchery — like an animal pen on the sand.

The volunteers collected the eggs from turtle nests on the shore, effectively holes that females dig with their flippers, and where they lay dozens of eggs at a time. The eggs are taken inside the hatchery to protect them from predators, such as dogs and gulls.

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