Gahirmatha beach is considered the world’s largest nesting beach for the endangered species. This time a whopping 2.45 lakh sea turtles have turned up
The Olive Ridley turtles at Gahiramatha and Rushikulya beaches. Twitter/ @susantananda3
Photos and videos of an enormous number of Olive Ridley turtles gathering on the coast of Odisha for mass nesting have recently gone viral. The visuals were shared by Indian Forest Service officer Susanta Nanda on 26 March.
Odisha witnessed this massive phenomenon as a million female Olive Ridley turtles turned up together at Gahiramatha and Rushukulya simultaneously.
IFS officer Nanda, who keeps sharing information about the wildlife in Odisha, tweeted about ‘Arribada’ on Saturday. It is a Spanish term that means the arrival by the sea, connotes a synchronised mass nesting of the sea turtles during which thousands of females come ashore to lay eggs at night to prevent predator attacks.
The beaches at Gahiramatha and Rushikulya are occupied by a whopping 2.45 lakh sea turtles this time. Nanda referred to this as ‘a rare phenomenon’ in his tweet. According to him, the mass nesting started at Gahiramatha on Saturday and at Rushikulya from 4 pm on Sunday. He also added that the forest officials are geared up to give all the possible protection to them.
Gahirmatha beach is considered the world’s largest nesting beach for the endangered species. According to the officials, a total of 1.48 crore Olive Ridley turtles hatched at the Gahiramatha beach in the Kendrapara district in 2021. Last year, the Odisha government banned fishing for seven months where Olive Ridley turtles congregated for mass nesting.
Olive Ridley turtles are considered endangered as they have only a few nesting sites left to lay their eggs and Odisha is one of them. Every year, as the temperature gets warmer, a huge number of sea turtles travel from the Indian Ocean. They settle on the eastern state’s coasts and take rest after burying their eggs under the sand.
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