Rajnagar: In a worrying development, Olive Ridley turtles returned without laying eggs at Odisha’s Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary in Odisha in the last week of April. Even though April is almost over, the rare Olive Ridley turtles are not doing the mass egg-laying process.For the past two months, lakhs of mother turtles were seen gathering within 500 meters of the shore, but no turtles have been seen on the shore for the past week.The lakhs of turtles that gathered on the shore to lay eggs have now moved outside the Gahirmatha boundary. In such a situation, the forest department has estimated that there will be no mass egg-laying of turtles in Gahirmatha this year.This event has worried the environmentalists as Gahirmatha is the only marine sanctuary in Odisha where more than 50 percent of the Olive Ridley turtles come. After mating in the blue waters of the ocean, millions of turtles lay their eggs on the sandy beach. Last year, more than 600,000 turtles laid their eggs from March 6 to 10.Every year, the Olive Ridley turtles lay their eggs in groups in the last week of March. Sometimes, mass laying also occurs in the first week of April. But this year, since the third week of April, the turtles have moved outside the Gahirmatha border without laying eggs, which is not a good sign for Gahirmatha, according to environmentalists.Similar event regarding turtles not lay eggs in large numbers were also seen in Gahirmatha in 2002, 2009, and 2014.
Endangered Olive ridley turtles return to sea without mass nesting in Gahirmatha
