India, April 15 -- After a tiger travelled as much as 500 km from Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Yavatmal to Solapur-Dharashiv in December 2024, it is now the turn of an Olive Ridley turtle tagged at Odisha's Gahirmatha beach in 2021 to be recently found nesting at Guhagar beach in Ratnagiri, implying that the Testudine (species that includes turtles and tortoises) covered a jaw-dropping 3,500 km across the sea.

Apart from counting as one more wildlife migration, the discovery, confirmed by wildlife researchers and the mangrove cell of the Maharashtra forest department, challenges the long-held belief that turtle populations on India's east and west coasts remain isolated. The said Olive Ridley turtle, bearing the flipper tag '03233', l...