Much to the ecstasy of turtle lovers, forest personnel have recently sighted more than a thousand mating pairs of Olive Ridley sea turtles in the Bay of Bengal between Habalikhati and Ekakula under the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary.
Surveillance has been tightened in the prohibited zone of the sanctuary to provide a congenial atmosphere for the endangered marine fauna, said sanctuary Ranger Subrat Kumar Patra.
The Forest Department has set up 16 onshore and two offshore camps in the sanctuary to restrict illegal entry of trawlers to protect the turtles during their annual sojourn to the world’s largest rookery of the species.
The mating of the turtles is expected to continue till January midweek. The female turtles lay 100-120 eggs at a go. They arrive at the coast at the dead of night, and after laying eggs get back into the deep seawater. Hatchlings emerge from the eggs after 45-60 days and find their way to the sea creating a cacophony. It is one of the nature’s rare phenomena where babies grow without their mothers.
During the breeding season, males and female turtles migrate from their feeding ground to the breeding ground. After laying the eggs in pits, the female turtles cover the nests with sand and return to the sea in a zigzag manner to confuse predator animals about the location of the nests.
The turtles come to the Bay of Bengal coast during winter to lay eggs en mass at the sandy beaches of Gahirmatha, besides the Devi and Rushikulya rivers’ mouths.