Odisha celebrates 1st Turtle Festival in Puri

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Jan 12, 2019 at 4:05 PM

Puri: Hundreds of tourists thronged Puri sea beach here to witness the first Odisha Turtle Festival held today to create awareness and promote ideas on conservation of olive ridley turtles.

The one-day festival organised by Cox & Kings Foundation in association with Humane Society International/India and Action for Protection of Wild Animals (APOWA) featured events like sand art and painting exhibitions. Several attractive stalls showcasing local artifacts were also put up at the festival.

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Worth mentioning, Odisha is the largest recipient of Olive Ridley Turtles that recorded about a million of them visiting the coastal State in October 2018.

Speaking about the initiative, Cox & Kings Foundation Trustee Thomas C Thottathil said, “The annual festival is an initiative to bring greater attention to turtle conservation programme. Odisha being one of the top tourist destinations in India, we thought it would be best to weave our conservation efforts with tourism and involve locals, tourists and others to be a part of the movement.”