File picture of turtle nesting at the Gahirmatha beach.

Kendrapara, Jan. 14: Erosion is threatening the Olive Ridley turtles rookery at Gahirmatha beach, once known as the world’s largest Olive Ridley nesting site.

Sources said the 32-km Gahirmatha beach has shrunk to just about a kilometre in length because of the play of waves. This has triggered concern among wildlife officials and enthusiasts, as the development does not augur well for the prospective mass nesting of this endangered species.

The contours of the beach have changed, and the slopes have become steep, making it less suitable for mass nesting.

“When I was involved in monitoring mass nesting of Oilve Ridley turtles on Gahirmatha beach in the 1990s, it used to be 15-km long. I am shocked to find the nesting ground so badly damaged,” said Manoj Kumar Mahapatra, divisional forest officer, Rajnagar Mangrove (Wildlife) division.

Pointing out that the clusters of isles close to Wheeler’s Island are constantly battered by waves, he said the sandy beaches that the turtles prefer for nesting are facing progressive damage.

Though erosion of the nesting beaches has been taking place for quite some time now, its intensity has gone up in the last five to six years.

This is happening because the sea is becoming increasingly rough.

“The forest bungalow located at Ekakula too is under threat. Erosion has brought it within a handshaking distance of the sea,” said a forest official. The forest department jetty at Barunei has also undergone extensive damage with marauding waves wreaking havoc on the coast. Officials said the nesting grounds near Nasi-1 and Nasi-2 islands have been worst hit by sea erosion leaving little room for the marine visitors to lay eggs.

“It’s not that space is unavailable, the beaches are now truncated and have become too steep to accommodate lakhs of turtles who come to lay eggs,” said an official.

The scenario is more or less the same at the other nesting sites such as Agarnasi, Pentha and Babubali along the Gahirmatha coast, said sources.

The Gahirmatha coast has seen Olive Ridley turtles, bracketed as schedule-1 animal under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, congregating in lakhs during the past years. They skipped Gahirmatha due to adverse conditions in 1996, 1997 and 2001.