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Rushikulya river mouth shifting worries villagers

Sib Kumar Das

Photo: Lingaraj Panda

PROBLEMS GALORE: The Rushikulya river mouth near Purunabandha village of Ganjam district, shifting of which has affected the nesting of Olive Ridley.

PURUNABANDHA (GANJAM DT.): Shifting of Rushikulya river mouth has started to worry the villagers living near the rookery.

It has also made the local volunteers involved in Olive ridley protection think that this shifting of river mouth may a reason behind the non-occurrence of mass nesting of these turtles at the beach near the Rushikulya river mouth.

Rushikulya river used to fall into the sea through two channels, one near Gokharkuda and the other near Potagarh. The villagers of the area say the super cyclone that hit the Orissa coast in 1999 led to high tides and sand deposition that closed down the channel near Potagarh.

This channel near Potagarh became almost defunct. With it the channel near Gokharkuda became more functional for the river.

High tides

In September 2006 extreme high tides hit the Ganjam coast that also washed away structures at the tourist destination Gopalpur. It also washed away a portion of the delta formed between the channels of Rushikulya river near Potagarh and Gokharkuda. But the tide changed the nature of the river near the sea. The channel near Potagarh that had become defunct after 1999 super cyclone became the main mouth of the river to meet the sea.

Erosion

On May 16 this year Ganjam coast again faced unusual high tide which affected Rushikulya river mouth again. The delta between the two channels of the river had a 2.3 km long beach. The extreme high tide this month eroded a major portion of this beach at the delta.

Rabindranath Sahu, environmental activist leading the Rushikulya Samudrika Kaincha Surakhya Samity, an organisation of local villagers to protect Olive ridleys and their eggs during nesting said around one km of the beach at the delta has got eroded. With it a large number of eggs laid by Olive ridleys those came to nest sporadically also got washed away. Mr. Sahu also suspects that shifting of Rushikulya river mouth in Septemeber last year and the erosion at the delta may be a reason behind Olive ridleys not coming to this beach for mass nesting this year. These turtles looking at the eroded beach and the changed river mouth may have felt this coast nonconductive for nesting.

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