Olive Ridley during nesting. File picture

Paradip, April 5: Government agencies have begun mulling over a proposal to sterilise stray dogs in unmanned turtle nesting grounds along the Gahirmatha coast to stop the marauding canine species from feasting on the turtles’ eggs and the newborns.

Earlier, wildlife lovers had drawn the attention of the animal welfare wing of the Union government on the threats the stray dogs posed once the marine creatures started laying eggs.

“Now, we are planning to include the stray dogs inhabiting the cluster of islands off Gahirmatha coast in an animal birth control programme to check their population,” said an official from the veterinary and animal husbandry department.

In 2003, the authorities had started the sterilisation programme. But soon the exercise became irregular and stray dog population multiplied.

“The sterilisation of stray dogs needs to be taken up on an urgent basis in Nasi and Babuballi islands where turtles are turning up to lay eggs. Here, the numbers of stray dogs has gone up steadily over the years,” said Manoj Kumar Mahapatra, divisional forest officer, Rajnagar Mangrove (Wildlife) Forest Division.

Officials of the veterinary and animal husbandry department held discussions with the forest officials regarding the need to control the dog population along Gahirmatha Island. The forest department has given its consent to the sterilisation programme.

There have been reports from a number of unmanned islands off Gahirmatha coast of dogs feasting on baby turtles that grow without their mother once they break out of the eggshells. They fall prey to predating dogs while undertaking their seaward journey.

The crux of the problem is that the dogs are safely ensconced in the nearby Wheelers’ Islands, which is a prohibited defence territory. The animals stray into the nesting beaches in search of food and eat up the eggs.

The officials who had monitored the mass-nesting phenomenon in the past two years said that the number of stray dogs in Wheeler’s Island had shot up alarmingly. The dogs living in and around the defence base have seemingly grown in arithmetic proportion.

“An estimated 1.68 lakh female Olive Ridley turtles have so far arrived en-masse to lay eggs , at the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary in Kendrapara district. Another phase of mass nesting is likely soon. To ensure the safety of the turtles’ nests, round-the-clock vigil is being maintained at the nesting ground,” Mahapatra said.