In a rare occurrence, olive ridley turtles turned up for mass nesting for the second time at Rushikulya rookery on Odisha coast at wee hours of Wednesday, while mass hatching of eggs of these endangered marine turtles is still continuing.
Such a phenomenon occurred for the first time at this major mass nesting site of olive ridleys on Indian coast, said Berhampur Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Ashis Behera.
A group of over 5000 mother turtles came out from sea from 4.30am onwards to dig out nests in sand and lay eggs in them. They nested on the stretch between Gokharkuda and Podampeta villages. This second phase of mass nesting occurred when lakhs of newborn hatchlings were heading towards the sea.
'Recurrence needs research'
Since past few days while mass hatching continued, sporadic nesting of a few olive ridleys was also observed at this coast. But recurrence of mass nesting was never expected. As per past records, mass nesting of olive ridleys had never occurred during the month of April on Odisha coast. Reason behind this late recurrence of mass nesting needs research by wildlife experts, said the DFO.
This year 4,45,091 mother olive ridleys had laid their eggs at Rushikulya rookery coast during the week long mass nesting that ended on February 27. Mass hatching of their eggs had started from April 14 night.
In 2006, Rushikulya rookery had witnessed two phases of mass nesting of olive ridley turtles, but at short interval. Similar trend also occurred in 2009, when mass nesting took place in February as well as in March. But in both these cases second phase of mass nesting had occurred when eggs laid by the first group of turtles were incubating under the sand. However, mass nesting had never occurred during mass hatching on this coast.
