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| Olive Ridley turtles on Gahirmatha beach. Telegraph picture |
Kendrapara, March 3: Jostling for breathing space in a decimated beach, the Olive Ridley turtles, presently engrossed in the mass nesting along the Nasi-1 island off Bay of Bengal coast, are encountering severe space constraints.
The nesting ground is now teeming with female turtles. The beach close to the Wheeler’s island defence project is severely damaged by sea erosion. The decimated beach is bereft of adequate land areas to accommodate such a large number of marine visitors at a time, said forest officials.
“In the last two days, nearly 1.5 lakh turtles have arrived to lay eggs on the dug out pits on the nesting ground. In coming days, more of them would congregate here. There is not enough space left on the sandy beach for female turtles to lay eggs,” said Manoj Kumar Mahapatra, divisional forest officer, Rajnagar mangrove (wildlife) forest division.
“We are facing a crisis because of decimation of the beach following sea erosion. The marauding sea has altered the geographical contour of the nesting ground and sea erosion has reduced the unmanned island to about 900metre length and 90metre width. We are concerned about the safety of millions of eggs earlier laid in the dug out nests. Each nest contains to 40 to 50 eggs,” said the official.
The forest personnel guarding the nesting ground express helplessness as turtles during the course of laying eggs are causing damage to eggs tucked inside the nests that were built earlier.
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 waves. This has triggered concern among wildlife officials and enthusiasts, as the development has come on the way of smooth 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, added forest officials.
