The mass nesting of around 3.5 lakh Olive Rudle turtles in the past one month at the Gahirmatha beach, considered to be the world's largest rookery, has set aside all apprehensions of the environmentalists pertaining to the impact of the upcoming Dhamara port on these turtles.
The environmentalists had stepped up the ante on the Dhamara port stating that the port would pose a serious threat to the mass nesting of the turtles, thereby impacting their survival.
The congregation of 3.5 lakh turtles at Gahirmatha this year, the highest in the decade, has been witnessed at a time when construction and dredging of the port was at its peak.
While the first round of nesting at Gahirmatha had taken place between February 24 to March 6, the turtles again started to nest in the area in large numbers from March 20.
According to the state forest department, during the last five days around 1.7 lakh turtles have turned up en masse to lay eggs by digging pits in the sandy beaches of Gahirmatha. The congregation has mostly taken place in the south-eastern portion of Nasi-II island.
Divisional Forest Officer (Wildlife) of Rajnagar P K Behera said the second nesting of Olive Ridley turtles in a single year had occurred at Gahirmatha last time in 2003-04, but the number was in few thousands only.
According to official sources, in the year 2008-09 close to 1.67 lakh turtles had come to nest at Gahirmatha, but there was no mass nesting reported in 2007-08. The nesting figure stood at 1.41 lakh in 2006-07, while in 2005-06 around 1.13 lakh Olive Ridleys had arrived to lay eggs at the marine sanctuary, as per official reports.