Return of the turtles
for the super cyclone ravaged Orissa coast, it was heartening to see the recent revival of the world's largest rookery of endangered Olive Ridley turtles on the Gahirmatha beach in the Kendrapara district. This year the beach witnessed the highest ever mass nesting of the turtles since the mid-1980s. More than seven lakhs of Ridleys mass nested. It came at a time when environmentalists were alarmed by a nesting failure this year as the cyclone had severely damaged the coast topography. Mass nesting had also failed in 1997 and 1998 when more than 20 thousands turtles were killed by illegal fishing trawlers.
However, between March 13-20 this year, about 12.35 lakh turtles swum up from the sea, and 7.11 lakh of them laid eggs. The main location for this year's mass nesting was the Nasi- i Island, Babubali Island and another new island formed off the Gahirmatha coast. The minimum number of nesting turtles (536) was recorded on the Nasi- ii Island, which is close to the forested Wheelers islands, India's missile testing center.
But euphoria over the unprecedented mass nesting is also accompanied by dismay over the deaths of around 28,000 turtles that were killed by fishing trawlers in the shoreline. This figure is the highest in the last one decade.