After a two-year holiday, Ridleys head home to Gahirmatha

A significant development during this year’s turtle season in Orissa, which has almost come to an end, was the Olive Ridley sea turtles’ ‘home coming’ to Gahirmatha beach. This beach is   home to the world’s biggest nesting ground for these endangered marine species.
For the last two consecutive years, the Olive Ridley turtles preferred to stay away from Gahirmatha beach located inside Bhitarakanika marine sanctuary in coastal Kendrapara district. Instead, they had  headed to other rookeries in Orissa for mass nesting. This  sent alarm bells ringing among the turtle lovers and environmentalists across the country. However, nearly two lakh Olive Ridleys congregated in Gahrimatha in the last week of March and first week of April for the famous ‘Arribada’(a Spanish word for turtle mass nesting), bringing  relief and cheers to  turtle lovers.
When the Olive Ridley turtles deserted Gahirmatha for the second consecutive season last year, worried turtle experts and environmentalists speculated over the matter. They felt that the new sea port, near the turtle nesting ground, under construction  at a rapid pace must have led to some disturbance and deterred the turtles from returning to the area. Turtle protection groups earlier opposed the private sector port project, because the noise and turbulence from construction activities forced the highly sensitive sea animals to abandon Gahirmatha  and head for other rookeries in the state.
However the port authorities rejected their  claim. The mass arrival of the turtles in Gahirmatha this season has already provided the port authorities and the Orissa government an opportunity to prove they were right in clearing the multi-crore project. It would not affect the turtles or their well known nesting ground.
Another reason cited by experts for the sea turtles’ desertion of Gahirmatha beach  was the state government’s failure to stop illegal trawling despite a ban order on fishing activities within the restricted zone.
Despite its tall claims, the Orissa government has not been able to control illegal fishing by mechanized trawlers within the banned areas during the turtle season. Like the previous years, this year too a large number of dead turtles were found on different beaches along the state’s coastline.
These turtles had untimely deaths after getting hit by mechanized fishing trawlers which were on their way to turtle rookeries. Two other factors also account for the turtles ‘ abandonment of the Gahirmatha beach. The phenomena of massive sea erosion along the Orissa coastline which has already engulfed stretches of many beaches, including a section of Gahirmatha beach. Besides the bright lights of the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) missile flight test centre at the nearby Wheelers Island.
However, state government officials said, the DRDO authorities had accepted that request and switched off  lights of the important defence installation during the turtle mass nesting this season. The cool and calm sea animals prefer to enter rookeries to lay their eggs after sunset. The process continues till sun rise.
Though the turtles have returned to Gahirmatha this season, experts are of the view that the world famous rookery will continue to remain under threat owing to the above factors, particularly the danger from the port front and illegal fishing by mechanized trawlers. They, in fact, do not rule out the possibility of Gahirmatha beach losing its status as the number one rookery for Olive Ridley turtles if the government does not address the above problems as early as possible.
If the Gahirmatha beach loses its unique status it could benefit  another turtle rookery in Orissa. This one  is located on the  beach near the Rusikulya river mouth in southern Ganjam district. It is  fast emerging as a superior nesting ground for Olive Ridley turtles. This year the endangered marine species visited the Rusikulya rookery not once but twice within a span of two months. On both the occasion the turtle congregation had crossed the two lakh figure.