A rare and heartwarming scene recently unfolded on the shores of Shamlapur Beach in Teknaf, where hundreds of tiny olive-green baby turtles were seen making their way back to their rightful home—the sea.
After four months of continuous effort and dedicated care, the results are now visible: a small but determined initiative has successfully released 10,053 baby turtles into the ocean, marking a significant milestone in the country’s biodiversity conservation efforts.
Ensuring the natural breeding of turtles in the wild has become a growing challenge. Each winter, hundreds of mother turtles arrive along Bangladesh’s vast coastline to lay their eggs. However, increasing human pressure, artificial lights from hotels and resorts, fishing nets, and stray dogs have made these coastal areas unsafe for mother turtles to nest.
In response to this reality, a unique initiative has been set up in Shamlapur, Teknaf.
The Community Development Centre (CODEC), a non-governmental organization, has established five hatcheries along a 40-kilometre stretch of coastline. Supported by international organizations IUCN and GIZ, the project collected 14,722 eggs from 129 turtle nests during the last winter season.
The eggs were carefully reburied under the sand in the hatcheries, following a natural incubation process. Each nest’s eggs were kept separately to ensure their protection and proper monitoring.
Through this process, 10,053 hatchlings successfully emerged, achieving a hatching success rate of 67.28 percent. These baby turtles have now been released into the sea in stages, marking a hopeful step towards the conservation of marine life along Bangladesh’s coast.
By Mohammad Morshed
Photo: Courtesy
