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March 16, 2010 | Endangered Olive Ridley turtles start mass nesting in Orissa | Bhubneswer: The endangered Olive Ridley turtles began mass nesting at the Rushikulya beach in Orissa late on Monday night. Around 20,000 Olive Ridley sea turtles crawled
ashore from the Bay of Bengal, almost after a month's delay, to lay eggs at the
2.5km long Rushikulya river mouth between Kantiagada and Gokharkuda villages in
the Ganjam district. The mass nesting started late at night, continued till early
hours of the morning and hundreds of female turtles were seen digging pits to
lay their eggs. Turtle lovers and experts were worried on account of delay, since
mass nesting had occurred at the beach on February 14 last year. This year there
has been a delay of a month. Sadly, most eggs are likely to be lost due to late
nesting, as beach erosion takes place in summer. "Every year, almost 8,000-10,000
Olive Ridleys die. However, the nesting is going on and this time around 2 to
3 lakh Olive Ridleys have come to the beach to nest. Unfortunately, the size of
the Olive Ridleys is decreasing year by year. We are seeing much smaller Olive
Ridleys than 10-15 years ago," Biswajit Mohanty, coordinator of the turtle
conservation
group Operation Kachhapa. Mohanty added that high waves and fierce winds are
likely
to destroy the nesting beaches, exposing the eggs to water leading to loss of
lakhs of turtle eggs. Visitors thronged in large numbers to see this beautiful
spectacle of nature. "It is so amazing...I haven't seen so many turtles. I work
for a turtle project back in Europe but we only had 400 turtles on the whole island
in the entire season. So, to come here to Orissa and see so many turtles in one
night is absolutely amazing," said Illiyana, a foreign tourist. Rushikulya river
mouth is the only place on the Orissa coast where turtles are safe from marauding
trawlers leading to negligible turtle casualties. However, several irreversible
threats now loom over the sea turtles due to ports, oil terminals and offshore
oil drilling. The two other nesting sites in the state are along the Nasi Islands
in Gahirmatha in the district of Kendrapada and the Devi river mouth in Puri.
While mass nesting started in the Nasi Islands last month it has not yet started
at the Devi river mouth |
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