Paradip, March 27: The nesting grounds of olive ridley sea turtles at Gahirmatha are facing problems because of sea erosion and other geographical phenomena.

Sea erosion around the Gahirmatha coast is taking a toll on the topography of the Nasi-1 and Nasi-2 Islands, which are the favourite nesting destinations of the turtles.

Last year, the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary was deprived of turtle visits. "This year, 4.13 lakh sea turtles laid eggs at the Gahirmatha beach. The nesting grounds would have hosted more turtles, had its shape not been battered by sea waves," said a wildlife official.

Ten years ago, the islands would stretch up to 8km. However, its length has now been reduced to 3km.

"The beaches have become stiff that has made the turtles skip their visit. The angle of repose is almost 90°, which makes it practically impossible for the turtles to climb up and crawl towards the beach to lay eggs. However, the 600-m beach at Nasi-2 Island is free from erosion," said Rajnagar mangrove (wildlife) forest officer Bimal Prasanna Acharya.

Congested turtle nesting has also become a concern for wildlife officials.

"An average-sized turtle nest has the capacity to carry 60 to 80 eggs. However, it has been found that multi-layer nesting due to lack of space is damaging the eggs that were laid earlier. As the turtles were seemingly in a hurry to lay eggs as per their natural instinct, one nest spilled over to the other and damaged the eggs," Acharya said.

"I witnessed the turtles crawling on the beach to dig pits and lay eggs. A number of female turtles, however, failed to climb up the steep beach and did not lay eggs there," said Acharya.

Despite the erosion, about 2km of the beach still has the prefect ambience for mass turtle nesting.

Hence, over 4 lakh sea turtles turned up this year for nesting. However, the beach has been fragmented in patches.

"Formation of sand bar in the sea close to the Nasi-2 nesting ground may also be driving the turtles away. The area profile of the beach has got decimated. Besides, the face of the nesting ground has become too steep for the turtles to climb up," said Acharya.

Besides, efforts of the wildlife officials and those of the Defence Research and Development Organisation and the Intermediary Test Range Centre authorities at the Wheeler Island helped the turtles. They switched off the light on their sea fronts so that the turtles do not get distracted.