Kendrapara: Ahead of the mass nesting phenomenon, wildlife officials are face to face with sporadic nesting of olive ridley turtles at Gahirmatha nesting ground, world's largest known rookery of the marine animals.

Every year, millions of olive ridley sea turtles emerge on the Gahirmatha beach to lay eggs between February and March - which is perceived as a rare natural phenomenon.

"Small group of turtles have crawled their way to the nesting beach at outer Wheelers' Island and begun laying eggs. Sporadic nesting of turtles is a positive sign and prelude to en masse emergence of turtles for laying eggs," said Rajnagar mangrove (wildlife) forest divisional officer Bimal Prasanna Acharya.

The forest officials are optimistic about occurrence of the mass-nesting in a week or two.

The female turtles almost invade the nesting beaches, usually at the dead of night, for laying eggs. After laying eggs, the turtles leave the nesting ground to stride into the deep sea water. Hatchlings emerge from these eggs after 45 days to 60 days.

Gahirmatha beach off the Bay of Bengal coast is widely regarded as world's largest-known nesting ground of these animals. Apart from Gahirmatha, these threatened aquatic animals turn up at the Rushikulya and Devi river mouths for mass nesting. Over six lakh turtles had turned for mass nesting last time at the Gahirmtha rookery.

The ground-level workers are maintaining vigil on the beach to save the nests from predators such as wild dogs, hyenas and jackals. There are instances of these marine animals skipping the mass nesting altogether in previous years.

"The behaviour and habitation pattern of the turtles are shrouded in mystery. Research is yet to throw much light on them. However, they continue to prefer Odisha coast for breeding and nesting, but not much is known about their destination once they leave the Odisha coast after laying eggs. Turtle protection squads are on the job to guard the sanctuary seawaters, with fishing activities being banned to ensure the turtles' safety," the official said.