New Delhi: Olive Ridley sea turtles turned up for mass nesting this season, after having stayed away from the Rushikulya river mouth on the Orissa coast for two consecutive years. Mr Biswajit Mohanty, Secretary of the Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO), which is an NGO partner of WTI, writes from Cuttack that 7,50,000 turtles nested at Nasi II island over the period February 1 to 21. Another 1,50,000 turtles nested at the Rushikulya river mouth between February 27 and March 5.Mr Mohanty is the Project Coordinator of the Cuttack-headquartered Operation Kachhapa, coordinated by the WSO, which aims at protecting sea turtles and their habitats. Operation Kachhapa has deployed 10 field assistants to monitor the nesting jointly with Forest Department staff. Steps have been taken to protect the nests from predators like dogs and jackals, and also against theft of eggs by local fishermen for consumption.

There are three mass nesting sites in Orissa State. The first, Gahirmatha, in Kendrapara district, is the world’s largest rookery for Olive Ridley turtles. The second, the Rushikulya river mouth rookery, has seen mass nesting since March 1994, when the phenomenon was first discovered at this site.

However, the numbers of nesting females has fluctuated from 60,000 in 1995 to as low as 12,000 in 1998, and the years 1999 and 2000 saw only sporadic nesting. The third site is the Devi river mouth. The WSO, the State Forest Department, and others involved in Operation Kachhapa are awaiting further nesting at the Rushikulya river mouth, where a huge concentration of turtles is present in the sea.

Operation Kachhapa, under whose aegis a patrol trawler has been provided to the State Forest Department for patrolling the sea in and around the mouth of the Devi river, is engaged in:

¨ Building awareness and education by putting up posters, stickers and holding meetings for local fishermen in the coastal villages

¨ Empowering the local fisherman community in nearly 120 villages by using travelling minstrels and handbills to enlighten them about marine fishing laws, and how their livelihoods are affected by illegal trawling

¨ Providing information to the media about sea turtle activity throughout the season

¨ Lobbying the government for protection of the turtles by coast guard patrols and Forest Department patrols

¨ Monitoring turtle mortality along the beach (two camps are run, one each at the Devi river mouth and the Rushikulya river mouth)

¨ Monitoring turtle nesting sites outside the Sanctuary

¨ Providing protection to turtle nests against predators.

Unfortunately, however, several thousand turtles die every year as a result of the illegal trawling activities of fishing tawlers and gill netters. More than 30 fishing trawlers and gill netters have been seized by the Coast Guard for illegal fishing or entry into the Bhittarnika Marine Sanctuary, according to Mr Mohanty. Conservationists say such alarming casualty rates could seriously reduce the turtle population.

The reason why so many turtles die is the finding by conservationists and researchers that a large number of the reptiles gather about 60 km from the coastline to mate, contrary to the earlier belief that mating activity took place closer to the shore. As part of a three-year-old effort to protect the turtles and stop trawlers from illegally killing them, the Orissa government this year banned mechanised fishing within 20 km of the coast, along a 150-km stretch from the Jatadhar river to Magarmukh-Chilika, for the five-month period January1-May 31.

Despite regular patrolling by the Coast Guard and the Forest Department, mechanised trawlers continue illegally to try and attempt to operate within the 20-km zone, and the turtles get caught in their nets. A second threat looming large is the proposed construction of the Dharma Port and a crude oil terminal near the Rushikulya nesting site. Conservationists have filed a public interest petition against construction of the two projects, but so far it has not yet come up for a hearing in court.