Berhampur: Rushikulya Rookery witnessed nesting for the second time in the early hours of Wednesday with thousands of turtle hatchlings heading out to the sea.

"About 5,000 female olive ridley sea turtles turned up at Rushikulya Rookery for nesting from Bateswar to New Podempeta between 3am and 4am on Wednesday. Though we term it as 'sporadic nesting', the turtles are now present in the sea in large numbers and we are keeping a vigil on their movement," said Berhampur divisional forest officer (DFO) Asish Kumar Behera.

"Such an incident has occurred for the first time at Rushikulya Rookery and I think it might have happened due to the inter-rookery movement of the sea turtles. Reason behind this late recurrence of nesting needs research by wildlife experts," the DFO said. This year, a record 4,45,091 olive ridley turtles laid eggs at Rushikulya Rookery during the week-long mass nesting that ended on February 27. The hatching of eggs started from April 14.

"It is because of this that no hatchling would be damaged when the female turtles dig out their nests in the sand and lay eggs in them during the second nesting," Behera said.

"We will decide our future course of action depending on the movement of Olive Ridley turtles who have turned up for nesting in April," he said.

The Rushikulya Rookery coast is considered one of the most preferred locations for nesting of the olive ridley turtles with hundreds of thousands turning up nearly every year to lay eggs.