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Much to the delight of conservationists, over one lakh endangered Olive Ridley turtles have turned up at the serene Gahirmatha beach of Orissa for mass nesting in the last three days.
Their nesting near the Rushikulya river mouth off Ganjam coast started on Friday.
An estimated 20,000 turtles climbed ashore to lay eggs in the 3-km-long stretch from Gokharakuda to Podampeta, the Divisional Forest Officer (Berhampur), Mr A.K. Jena, said.
The mass nesting of the Olive Ridley was followed by the sporadic nesting in the rookery, considered as the second largest after Gahiramatha in Kendrapara district.
The forest department has taken measures for the safe and smooth nesting of the turtles in the rookery.
Besides the Rushikulya river mouth, the other two nesting sites— the Devi river mouth in Puri district and Gahiramatha — are the famous mass nesting sites for the Olive Ridley turtles in the State.
At Gahirmatha
“The Nasi-1 Island, near Defence Research and Development Organisation's defence installation at Wheeler's Island, is witness to the laying of eggs by the marine visitors,” Mr Manoj Kumar Mahapatra, Divisional forest Officer, Rajnagar Mangrove (Wildlife) Forest Division, said.
The turtles' sojourn in unmanned island with idyllic environment has been a treat to watch, forest officials said.
As the territory where turtles have congregated to lay eggs is very close to the prohibited defence project, there are none to witness this unique natural phenomenon.
Under DRDO directions, visitors and outsiders are stopped from making their way to the place. Only forest personnel on turtle protection duty have access to the nesting ground, said forest officials.
The 1-km stretch nesting ground is teeming with nesting Olive Ridley marine turtles who continue to enjoy threatened status equal to that of Bengal tigers in the country. The nesting that is expected to continue for a week would pick up in coming days, officials said.
The turtles loiter around the serene beach for quite a while before locating their preferred places to lay eggs.
They stay over an hour or so at the nesting ground before undertaking their seaward journey, officials said.
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