BERHAMPUR: The annual nesting season of the Olive Ridley turtles at the Rushikulya rookery in Ganjam district has created a new record of over 5.5 lakh nests this year.
According to forest officials, the nest count was 5,50,317 on Sunday. ACF Berhampur Division Ashok Behera said mass nesting that started since March 27 is expected to continue for another couple of days but in a sporadic way.
The Olive Ridleys have already broken the record of mass nesting at the rookery this year. At 5,50,317 nests, this is the highest in last three decades and indicates that the environment of this coast continues to be conducive for their mass nesting, the ACF said.
In 2016, 2019 and 2021, for some unexplained reasons, there was no mass nesting along the coast. This, according to Secretary of Sea Turtle Protection Committee Rabindra Sahu, could be due to sea erosion and change of climate.
Meanwhile, the Forest department has made arrangements for safe nesting by enforcing restrictions on movement of fishing boats and illegal activities near the nesting site.”We will ensure that no problems occur during mass nesting,”said Berhampur DFO Amlan Nayak.
6,500 olive ridleys tagged by ZSI
Apart from the record mass nesting, a good number of Olive Ridley turtles at Rushikulya rookery were tagged by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).
The tagging has been taken up for studying migration route of the endangered species. “Till date, about 6,500 turtles have been tagged. Our objective is to study the inter-rookery migration of these delicate marine species besides their gestation period,” said Anil Mohapatra, ZSI scientist at Gopalpur.
The tags are uniquely numbered and have details such as name of organisation, their e-mail etc. This will help find the extent of travel and location of the turtles after congregation and nesting for further research on turtle behaviour.
ZSI officials said the turtles were fitted with metallic flipper tags and the exercise will continue for the next three months. The central agency has taken up the exercise in collaboration with State Forest department lending logistic support to the project.