KENDRAPADA: Around 20 Olive Ridleys laid eggs on Saturday night at Nasi 1 and Nasi 2 islands at Gahirmatha beach, said Manas Das, the forest range officer of the marine sanctuary.
Sporadic nesting of the sea turtles started recently inside the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary, the world's largest nesting sites of the sea turtle in Kendrapada district.
"More turtles will arrive to lay eggs and the forest officials are now on high alert to protect the turtles and their eggs on the beach. To protect the eggs from predators like dogs, jackals,wild boars and birds, the forest department has established hatcheries at Aagarnasi, Pentha, Madali and Babubali beaches. The forest guards are collecting eggs from the pits and putting them in the hatcheries. All the hatcheries are covered with plastic nets to prevent the entry of any predators," added the forest officer.
The sporadic nesting of turtles indicates that the mass-nesting of the turtle or arribada would start within a month. Last year, 5,01,157 turtles laid eggs from March 25 to 28 at Gahirmatha marine sanctuary, Das said.
The government has banned all types of fishing for seven months from November 1 to May 31 to save the endangered marine species. "We arrested 240 marine fishermen and seized 30 fishing vessels on the charge of illegally fishing within marine sanctuary from November 1 till date. We also seized fish worth Rs 35 lakh from them," Das added.
The nesting of sea turtles is one of nature's most amazing spectacles. The sea turtle is a major attraction on the Odisha coast. "In fact, this phenomenon was the main reason for declaring Gahiramatha as a marine sanctuary in 1997 by the central government," Das said.
The officials of Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) recently put off the bright lights at the integrated missile testing centre at Abdul Kalam island for the safe arrival of turtles at Gahirmatha as the artificial lights disorients hatching turtles and adult females in ways that can be deadly, Das said.
The forest department has also demarcated the boundary of the marine sanctuary by putting 14 floating buoys from 20 km from the coastline covering 1,435 square km in the sea from Hukitola to Dhamra, the forest officer added.
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