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Olive Ridley turtles arrive at Rushikulya rookery coast

BERHAMPUR: Mass nesting of Olive Ridley turtles started at the Rushikulya rookery coast in Ganjam district of Orissa from Thursday midnight.

On the first night over 20,000 mother turtles travelled up to the sandy beach to lay their eggs, said Berhampur Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), A.K.Jena, who is monitoring the mass nesting process. These turtles laid their eggs in a stretch of around four kilometres of beach from Purunabandha to Podampeta. They came out on to the beach in the darkness to dig up holes in sand with their flippers and laid their eggs in them. Then they covered them up with sand before escaping into the sea. More than a hundred eggs were laid into every nest.

According to Mr Jena mass nesting process is expected to continue for around a week. Sporadic nesting of Olive Ridleys had started at this coast few days back.

A team from Indian Science Center, Bangaluru led by scientist Kartik Shankar is also at Rushikulya rookery for study of these endangered reptiles during the nesting process.

The entire stretch of four kilometres of beach has been divided into 40 segments. Each segment is being monitored by a forest official along with a daily wager appointed by the forest department. They also serve as sampling points for record data regarding nesting process. Local villagers are also playing a major role in the protection of these turtles. Rushikulya Sea Turtle Protection Committee (RSTPC) had been formed at Purunabandha village istaking the lead in these efforts.

As per experts environmental factors delayed the mass nesting of Olive Ridleys by around two weeks this year. Usually Olive Ridleys start to come out to this coast to nest during the third week of February. But this year they seem to have delayed the nesting process to wait for rise in environmental temperature. This year atmospheric temperature on this coast was slightly low during this time in comparison past years because of a good stretch of winter and rains in February. Olive Ridleys waited for rise in temperature which would be best for their eggs to incubate and hatch under the sand.

These eggs incubate and hatch due to heat of sand in 45 days. On an average, around 80 hatchlings come out of each nest. Forest department and volunteers are making all possible efforts to protect the nests and the eggs in them from predators like dogs, foxes, crows, vultures etc.

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