Kendrapara: Olive Ridley sea turtles are likely to skip mass nesting this time at the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary, the world’s largest rookery of endangered turtles, due to an unprecedented rise in the mercury over the past few days.
Coastal Orissa has been witnessing a heatwave condition with the mercury hovering over 40 degree Celsius for the past few days, almost a rise of five degree Celsius than the normal temperature.
The forest personnel of Bhitarkanika National Park said though there were signs of mass nesting of Olive Ridley turtles at the beach a fortnight back, now things have changed a lot.
A week ago Olive Ridley sea turtles were in the coast but now they have returned to the deep sea, Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary ranger Subrata Kumar Patra said. The mass nesting of the turtles may not happen this year, Patra said, adding the rise in temperature, the ongoing heatwave conditions, formation of a half a km long sand bar at Nasi-II beach and the shrinking of the beach are the major impediments to mass nesting this time.
Though southern wind, conducive for the marine turtles to come to the sandy beaches for laying eggs, continues to blow with a good speed, the turtles will die due to the rise in temperature, he remarked.
In the last half decade or so, it has been witnessed that the Olive Ridley turtles generally lay eggs en masse during March or April.
But, the rise in mercury has now become a major impediment to mass nesting at the favourite nesting ground of this species, officials said.
The forest personnel also said the turtles might have skipped the Gahirmatha beach as they find it difficult to negotiate the more than half a km long sand bar formed at Nasi -II beach to reach nesting ground. The shrinking of the beaches over the years is also another reason for the endangered turtles to skip mass nesting this time, Patra said.
Only 51,879 Olive Ridley turtles came to Nasi-II beach for laying eggs in between March 16 and 21, Patra said. PNN
