Berhampur: The mass nesting of Olive Ridley turtles has reached all-time high on Rushikulya coast of Ganjam district Sunday. More than five crore eggs were laid on the second largest Olive Ridley-friendly coast of the world this year, a senior forest official said.
According to Berhampur divisional forest officer (DFO) Amlan Nayak, so far, as many as five lakh female Olive Ridley turtles have nested around Gokharakuda and Kantiagada forest ranges of the coast and laid more than five crore healthy eggs during the nesting season.
“Hatchlings will successfully emerge from the eggs during the next 50 days. In view of favorable hatching, safety and security of the mother turtles along with their hatchlings, the forest department has made extensive arrangements on Rushikulya coast,” Nayak informed.
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Around three kilometers from the coast has been declared as ‘core area’, in order to facilitate smooth nesting of the turtles. The area has been separated into three different zones with distinct partitions.
Entire nesting zone has been protected from visitors, Nayak added.
It is pertinent to mention here that scientists have tagged more than 6,500 Olive Ridley turtles in the Rushikulya coast of Ganjam to gather more information about their breeding behaviour and migration.
During the nesting period scientists of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) have tagged nearly one and half per cent of turtles that have arrived on the beach, scientist at the ZSI Basudev Tripathi stated.
“The more Olive Ridley turtles we tag, possibly, the more information we will obtain about their breeding behaviour and re-migration interval. The probability of tag returns was very low last year and when 1,200 turtles were tagged there were only four tag returns,” Tripathi said.
PNN