Olive Ridley turtles at Rushikulya beach. Telegraph picture

Berhampur, March 10: The mass nesting of the Olive Ridley sea turtles ended at the Rushikulya rookery, 40km from here, in Ganjam district. More than 2.5 lakh turtles laid their eggs in a 4km stretch at the Gokharkuda beach since the night of March 3.

“Last year during the mass nesting period, 1.56 lakh Olive Ridley sea turtles laid their eggs at the Rushikulya rookery and this year the number has surpassed it. The mass nesting this year started on March 3 night and ended on the wee hours of March 9. About 53,000 turtles laid their eggs between March 3 and 4. The same number of turtles laid eggs on March 4 and 5. It was 65,000 on March 5 and 6, about 46,000 during March 6-7, about 23,000 during March 7-8 and 10,000 during March 8-9,” said Berhampur divisional forest officer (DFO) Ajaya Kumar Jena, who is supervising and monitoring the mass nesting process.

During March 9-10, only 300 turtles laid their eggs and the number will decrease gradually, he said.

Rushikulya rookery, which is the second largest in the world after Gahirmatha, was discovered only in 1994. About 60,000 Olive Ridley turtles arrived for mass nesting in 1994-95. It was 1.18 lakh in 1995-96, 25,000 in 1996-97, 8,500 in 1997-98 and 1.59 lakh in 2000-01. There was no mass nesting at this rookery during 1998-99 and 1999-2000. The number of mass nesting was 89,000 in 2004-05, 1.98-lakh in 2005-06, 1.80 lakh in 2007-08, 2.60 lakh in 2008-09 and 1.56 lakh in 2009-10. There was no mass nesting in 2006-07 at Rushikulya Rookery, sources said.

A mother Olive Ridley weighing between 50 and 75kg can lay between 80 and 200 eggs a year. The turtle comes to the shore from the sea at night and digs a pit up to the depth of one foot. It lays the eggs in the pit, fills it with sand, pats it and goes back to the sea again. The entire process takes about one-and-a-half hours. These eggs incubate and hatch due to heat of sand in 45 days. On an average, around 80 hatchlings come out of each nest, said Rabindranath Sahu, secretary of the Rushikulya Sea Turtle Protection Committee. Wildlife Act, 1972, declared Olive Ridley turtles as endangered species, he said.

“The counting of turtles during the night by a special statistical formula is a herculean task. We have taken 40 staff from the forest department and a similar number of daily wage labourers to assist them for this operation. The beach has been divided into 40 segments. A forest official along with a daily wage labourer appointed by the forest department is monitoring each segment. They also serve as sampling points for record data regarding nesting process,” said the divisional forest officer, Berhampur.

“The scientists of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Indian Science Academy, the local folk and NGO activists also help us in this endeavour,” he said.

“Every year for six months from November to May the forest department takes many precautionary measures for the smooth congregation, mating, nesting, hatching of eggs and the baby turtles creep into the sea. We are making all possible efforts to protect the nests and the eggs in them from predators such as dogs, foxes, crows, vultures and others till the hatching,” the divisional forest officer said. About the mouth of Rushikulya River drifting north since 2007 and its impact on the Olive Ridley, the DFO said that it is a dynamic process and we should not term it disheartening and say that river’s mouth has changed. “I don’t believe in that. The nesting in Gahirmatha has shifted more than 15 to 20km during last 25 years,” the divisional forest officer said.

K. K. Nayak, forest ranger, Khallikote, said: “We have fenced a plastic net to the height of 7-foot, covering the entire beach where mass nesting took place and it would be put as it is till the hatching.”