Berhampur: After a gap of seven years, a second phase of mass nesting of Olive Ridley sea turtles began at the Rushikulya river mouth in Ganjam district on Saturday.
“A total of 38,779 turtles laid eggs along the stretch from Purunabandh to Bateswar on the first day of the second phase of mass nesting,” said Dibya Shankar Behera, assistant conservator of forests (ACF) and in-charge of Khallikote range.
Experts expect the mass nesting to continue for the next few days, as a large number of Olive Ridleys are still in the sea. “We are expecting the mass nesting to continue for some more days in the second phase,” said Anil Mohapatra, a senior scientist of the regional centre of Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Gopalpur.
A record number of 698,718 Olive Ridleys laid eggs at the rookery in the first phase of mass nesting from Feb 16 to 23. Though mass hatching was yet to occur, sporadic hatching started on the beach in the last few days. Generally, the hatchlings emerge from the shells 45 to 50 days after laying of eggs, experts said.
A second phase of mass nesting was last recorded at the river mouth in 2018. Over 37,000 turtles laid eggs from April 20 to 27, 2018. Rabindra Nath Sahu, president of the Ganjam District Sea Turtle Protection Committee, said the second phase of mass nesting occurred several times at Rushikulya river mouth and Gahirmatha.
Behera said they have ramped up the protection measures following the second phase of mass nesting at the rookery. “We have deployed 20 more staff to guard the turtles that came to lay eggs,” he said. “Earlier, 180 personnel, including local volunteers, were deployed to guard the eggs. As experts predicted the mass nesting would continue for some more days in the second phase, we have prepared accordingly,” he added.