Olive Ridley sea turtles throng Odisha coast

The annual turtle season on the Odisha coastline has already begun with arrival of large number of Olive Ridley sea turtles for mating and mass nesting.

 “Large number of turtles have already seen mating inside the sea near the coast and soon female turtles will proceed to the three nesting grounds to lay their eggs. The process is expected to continue till February end next year,” said a forest department official monitoring the development.

Odisha houses three major nesting grounds for these endangered sea species.
 They are located at Gahrimatha in Kendrapara district, on the Devi river mouth near Astaranga in Puri district and on the Rusikulya river mouth in Ganjam district.
 The rookery at Gahirmatha is considered to be biggest in the world.

Several steps have already been initiated by the authorities to provide protection to the sea turtles during mating and subsequent mass nesting. A ban has been put in place on mechanised trawling up to 20 km from the state’s coastline from November 1 which will continue till May next year.

Besides, 56 patrolling camps have been set up to check illegal fishing activities. In fact, since the imposition of the ban order, 36 fishermen have already been arrested and seven fishing trawlers have been seized for violating the government order.

 The state government had recently convened a high level official meeting to review the steps initiated by the forest, fisheries and police departments to provide protection to the turtles. The chief secretary G C Pati had chaired the meeting.

During the 2014-15 season, about 7 lakh 22 thousand Olive Ridleys had congregated in the three nesting grounds to nest. “We hope the number will cross eight lakh this season,” said a forest department official.