Kendrapara: Overcrowding due to the preference of turtles for specific sandy patches at Gahirmatha beach is leading to the destruction of thousands of eggs.

Usually forest officials take steps to keep the nesting ground out of bounds for predators such as jackals, hyenas or dogs who destroy eggs, but this time the overcrowding of marine species on certain patches have led to turtles destroying the eggs laid earlier.

The nesting ground at the idyllic Gahirmatha Island has re-established itself as the world's largest known rookery of Olive Ridley turtles with an approximate 6.67 lakh marine species converging on the sandy beach for mass nesting. What has worried officials is the destruction of eggs by the turtles.

"There has been large congregation of female turtles for en-masee laying of eggs. But they were found destroying nests laid earlier by breeding turtles," said assistant conservator of forest G. Anand Kumar.

"The idyllic nesting ground of olive ridley turtles at Outer Wheelers' Island has added an extra half-a-kilometre to it following natural accretion process. It has stretched up to 1.5km, from the earlier one kilometre last year. Therefore, the beach proved congenial for mass nesting of turtles. However, the turtles are found to have preferred some particular sandy patches for mass nesting. So specific pockets of the nesting ground was overcrowded with turtles, resulting in eggs being destroyed by the animals themselves," said the official.

Nesting turtles smashed the eggs as they moved to find a congenial spot to dig pit and lay eggs. The turtles, little knowing the existence of nests, were sighted digging up the spot dismantling the already existing nests and eggs. It's not possible to stop the destruction of eggs, an official said.

Since the start of mass-nesting, described as arribada (a Spanish term used for en masse laying eggs by turtles), on March 7, the third highest ever congregation of marine species has taken place in unmanned Island with 6.67 lakh turtles turning up for nesting till Monday night. The intensity of mass nesting has come down. We are expecting the mass nesting of turtles for couple of days more, he said.

"The marine species might have so far laid over eight to nine crore eggs. However, over three crore eggs have been damaged as per a conservative estimate," the official said.