Berhampur: The 24km coastline from Arjipalli to Prayagi in Ganjam district till 20km into the sea will be a no-fishing zone from November 1 to facilitate the olive ridley turtles that come to the Rushikulya river mouth to nest.

"We expect congregation of the turtles and nesting till the hatchling of eggs and the baby turtles go back into the sea from November to May," said Berhampur divisional forest officer Ashis Kumar Behera.

"We have two speed boats of our own. The Gopalpur Port Authority will provide one trawler, and we will hire another to keep a tight watch on the area," Behera said.

"Nine squads of personnel will patrol the area. We could recruit some local fishermen by paying them a monthly remuneration. We have already initiated steps to establish departmental control rooms at Gokharkuda, Prayagi and Markandi, he said.

To make people aware of the ban, a campaign is under way. Posters seeking the safety of the turtles have been pasted at the coastal villages. The entire beach will be cleaned to facilitate the mass nesting.

Of the 4,148 fishermen families staying at 28 villages located on the Ganjam coastline, only 3,598 are active now.

The government is trying to give the fishermen better livelihood, the forest officer said.

The last mass nesting of the olive ridley was the highest with 3,70,633 turtles visiting the Odisha coast, said Behera.

The official figure of mass nesting is 2.01 lakh in 2004, 89,000 in 2005, 1.98 lakh in 2006, nil in 2007, 1.80 lakh in 2008, 2.61 lakh in 2009, 1.56 lakh in 2010, 2.53 lakh in 2011, 1.01 lakh in 2012, 2.86 lakh in 2013, 59,000 in 2014, 3.09 lakh in 2015, nil in 2016 and 3.70 lakh in 2017. The Rushikulya rookery coast is considered one of the most preferred locations for nesting of these turtles.

Priyambada Mohanty Hejmadi, a zoologist and former vice-chancellor of Sambalpur University, proposed the state government to set up a research centre for the olive ridley turtles either at Rushikulya in Ganjam or the Debi river mouth in Puri or Gahirmatha in Kendrapada for long-term support to the species during a high-level committee meeting at Bhubaneswar on October 18.

"The state government has responded to this proposal positively," said Behera, who also attended the meeting.