Mass nesting of turtles at Gahirmatha

Bhubaneswar: Gahirmatha beach in Orissa, famed as one of the very few mass nesting sites of the Olive Ridley turtles in the world is set to witness mass congregation of the turtles soon after a gap of two years. According to Prasanna Kumar Behera, divisional forest officer, Bhitarkanika National Park, about four lakh turtles are expected to lay eggs within a week. The last mass nesting of the Olive Ridley turtles at the Gahirmatha beach was witnessed two years back when about 3.5 lakh turtles had laid eggs. The Orissa government has also deployed about 50 forest personnel on the Gahirmatha beach to keep a vigil on the area and also to ensure uninterrupted mass nesting of the turtles. It may be noted the environmental groups led by Greenpeace had alleged that the dredging work of the upcoming Dhamara port, being developed at a site close to the Gahirmatha beach, threatened the survival of the turtles. These environmental groups had even called for complete suspension of the dredging work to facilitate an environmental impact study. Dhamara port is being developed by Dhamara Port Company Limited (DPCL), a special purpose vehicle formed by Tata Steel and L&T. NCP to contest 10 assembly and 1 parliamentary seat in Orissa.