RAMANATHAPURAM
Gabion boxes (box filled with rocks and boulders) placed on either side of the newly laid road in Dhanushkodi to prevent sea water from entering into the road seemed to have posed a threat to the nesting habitats of Olive Ridley turtles at Arichamunai.
As the nesting season has begun, sea turtles seemed to be finding it difficult to build nests in dry sand patches near the shore as the road was flanked by the Gabion boxes, ‘encroaching’ upon their nesting habitats at Arichamunai, the most preferred region by Olive Ridley turtles to lay eggs.
The turtles, which travelled long distances looking for dry sand patches to build their nests, were hit by the Gabion boxes if the analysis of turtle tracks in the region was any indication, S. Sathish, Range Officer, Mandapam Wildlife Forest Range, said.
When the Forest department personnel and turtle watchers recorded the maiden collection of sea turtle eggs on December 17 at Arichamunai, they found that an Olive Ridley turtle had travelled all the way up to the Gabion boxes, looking for dry sand, and took a ‘U’ turn to lay the eggs in the moist sand near the shore.
On Friday, they found that a turtle, which was also in search of dry sand, had climbed over the more than three-foot-tall Gabion boxes and laid eggs after building a nest in the ‘hard red soil’ near the road. The soil was found hard and the turtle would have struggled to build the nest as the pit was small, Mr. Sathish said.
The nest had 128 eggs, two of which were broken. In another nest found at Mukundarayar Chathiram, the forest staff collected 145 eggs, he said, adding they had collected 543 eggs from four nests so far during this season.
