An Olive Ridley turtle (file picture)

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 31: The Orissa government will step up vigil along the Bay of Bengal coast to ensure safety of the endangered Olive Ridley turtles whose mass nesting on the beaches at Gahirmatha and Rushikulya is a much awaited event.

A meeting chaired by chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik today decided to set up 51 turtle protection camps with focus on three major nesting sites in Puri, Ganjam and Kendrapara districts. Sources said while 17 camps would be set up at Rajnagar of Kendrapara, 11 would come up in Puri, followed by 10 in Berhampur.

These turtle protection facilities, monitored by the wildlife wing of the state forest department, will also operate in Balasore, Bhadrak and Chilika. The authorities, who have decided to divide the 480-km stretch of the coast into six subdivisions for the purpose of ensuring hassle-free mating and nesting of the endangered turtles, will also seek the services of the Coast Guard.

The biggest threat to the turtles comes from illegal fishing activities with trawlers and motorised boats frequently violating the ban imposed on the coast during their nesting season by the fisheries department. Cases of violation of fishing ban in the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary, a known turtle habitat, are reported regularly during the nesting season of the turtles.

Wildlife officials and environmentalists have expressed concern over the death of turtles caused by fishing during their nesting season. In most cases, the turtles get strangled by the fishing nets while some also succumb to the injuries caused by propeller-hits. What makes the situation worse is the adamant refusal of the fishing craft to use turtle excluder devices which provide an escape route to these creatures when they get caught in fishing nets.

Sources said that last year, as many as 3,227 turtles died on the state coast. But their mortality rate is gradually declining. Officials also appeared satisfied with the turnout of Olive Ridley turtles on the beaches in Gahirmatha and Rushikulya last year when as many as 7.25 lakh of them laid eggs in what is known in wildlife parlance as mass nesting.