Mumbai: Olive Ridley turtles and dolphins return after 20 years

After 128 weeks of relentless clean-up of Mumbai’ dirtiest beach—Versova-- marine life has started recuperating from the choking pollution.

Around 80 Olive Ridley Sea Turtles have hatched after 20 years and once elusive, dolphins sightings has become an example of community efforts towards coastal ecosystem revival.

Afroz Shah, a lawyer who led world’s largest marine litter clean-up at Versova, told CGTN, “We are witnessing dolphins’ activity on a regular basis. Dolphins and Olive Ridley population started depleting due to mass plastic waste and unsustainable fishing in the area.”

Indo-Pacific Humpback dolphins and porpoises were once seen in large numbers along the Mumbai’s coast. Shah’s relentless effort to remove waste pile-up later won support from United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and state government.

Locals formed the Versova Residents’ Volunteers (VRV) for large-scale beach clean-ups every weekend. Together, they moved more than 14 million kg of waste mostly plastic dumped on the beach.

According to experts, female Olive Ridley's often travel from the sea to the beach to lay eggs, but a litter pile was acting as a barrier. World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) research shows females Ridley turtles return to the very same beach from where they were first hatched, to lay their eggs.

During this phenomenal nesting season, up to 600,000 and more females emerge from the waters, over a period of five to seven days, to lay eggs. “Unable to find its way to the beach, pregnant turtles return to the sea. By any chance, if they are successful in hatching the egg, then young ones get entangled in the trash,” Shah added.

Volunteers cleaning up litter on Versova beach in Mumbai.

Though found in abundance, Olive Ridley’s numbers have been declining over the past few years, and the species is recognized as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

Jubilant over marine life teeming again at the beach, Shah and volunteers claimed the endangered turtles and dolphins revival has proved, a mounting pile of marine litter can be controlled.

Concerned over the massive plastic waste entering the oceans, UNEP warns, if this trend continues then almost 33 billion tons of plastic will have accumulated in the sea by 2030. More than 12.7 million tons of plastic has already entered the ocean.

A significant part of debris entering seas includes cigarette filters, plastic bags, fishing equipment, and other tough to recycle packaging material. UNEP in a report revealed, between 60 and 90 percent of marine debris was manufactured using one or mix of various plastic polymers.

“Plastic materials are broken up by waves and sunlight to form microparticles that are less than 5mm in diameter. These tiny fragments end up in the stomachs of marine life,” the report maintained.

Shah pointed out—the solid waste removal from Versova or any place is not an easy task. The collected waste needs segregation and disposal.

VRV partnered up with Bombay Municipal Corporation to ensure the waste is segregated and sourced to recycling units. But for volunteers the challenge is to deal with non-recyclable single-use plastic that has a limited resale value.

Erik Solheim, head of UNEP, impressed by the local’s effort to clean the Versova beach participated in one of the clean-up drives in 2016.

Impressed with the

restoration of a coastal ecosystem, he said in a tweet on March 24, “It’s been 20 years since Olive Ridley turtles were seen on Mumbai's Versova beach. Thanks to the city's green crusaders, they are back!”

(CGTN)