Volunteers, accompanied by local fishermen and school children, protected the nesting area of the Olive Ridley sea turtles at Kodi beach of Kundapur in Udupi district on Sunday by erecting nets around the area.
According to Dinesh Saranga from FSL India, an NGO which is engaged in conserving Olive Ridley turtles, the nesting area was noticed by Santosh, who found some eggs damaged by stray dogs.
Soon after, Mr. Saranga said he joined Santosh, fisherman Babu Mogaveera, forest guard Ranjith, and students of HMM school to build the nets. The eggs look to have been hatched about 40 days ago. About 26 eggs have been damaged by the dogs. There were signs of a few hatchlings entering the sea after breaking open from the eggs. The remaining 80 eggs in the nestling area have been protected. The FSL India volunteers and the Forest Department personnel are keeping a close watch on the area.
Mr. Saranga said the nestling point found on Sunday was the first to be discovered on the beach during this nestling season that began from November.
The Olive Ridley turtles lay around 180 eggs at each site during the nestling season that goes on till March. Civic authorities have been asked to take action against stray dogs, which are found harming the eggs. The fishermen have been asked not to lay nets close to around 3 km area of the beach where the turtles lay the eggs, Mr. Saranga said.
