As the morning light broke on February 16, the contingent of forest field staff, volunteers from local communities, conservationists as well as researchers were delighted to see a stream of Olive Ridley turtles dawdling onto the inclines of Rushikulya beach of Ganjam district in Odisha.
A little over 11,000, the army of sea turtles brought a sense of relief. The last season had reported a zero turnout.
Over the next two days, however, the happiness turned into amazement as the approximately 10-km-long beach – from New-Podampeta to Agasti Nuagaon – was crawling with mother Olive Ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) arriving in wave after wave. It was a wonder of nature, a spectacle. Soon pictures and videos of the ‘arribada,’ Spanish term for mass arrival by sea, went viral, drawing awe from one and all.
Even as South India coast was abuzz with large-scale mortalities, Rushikulya rookery notched up a rare record as for the first time it played host to over 7 lakh Olive Ridley turtles.
Record-breaker
In terms of sheer numbers, Rushikulya rookery saw 7.2 lakh Olive Ridley turtles arriving at the nesting site this year, the highest in recent decades. The arribada lasted for eight days, from February 16 to 23, and concluded with 6,98,718 turtles showing up to lay eggs. Another 3,000 turtles were counted during sporadic nesting. Mass nesting is defined as 10,000 or more turtles coming ashore to lay eggs in a day.
The Berhampur forest division was chuffed and for good reasons. The nesting began on the first day with 11,390 turtles and the figure soared to 79,168 on day two, followed by a massive surge the next day when 1,28,242 turtles arrived. The peak of the arribada, with 1,87,578 Olive Ridleys, was observed on day four. On day five, the numbers fell to 1,44,900, followed by 90,264 turtles on day six. As the nesting began to fall, 40,870 turtles arrived on day seven, and the event concluded on day eight with 16,306 turtles.
“This is the highest mass nesting event ever recorded in Odisha,” says a beaming principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) and chief wildlife warden of Odisha, Prem Kumar Jha. Considered world’s largest rookery, Gahirmatha marine sanctuary had logged nesting by 6.65 lakh sea turtles in 2017-18 while Rushikulya rookery’s peak of 6.37 lakh was achieved in 2022-23. The nesting this year was also unique because the arribada lasted for more than a week.
Mass nesting generally takes place on a 5 km to 7 km stretch which expanded to nearly 10 km due to a secured and favourable space. Apart from the usual stretch of Podampeta and Aleswar temple, arribada also occurred on a 3 km band of Gokhurkuda-Agasti Nuagaon due to
Bane for man, boon for turtle
From Old Podampeta, the long stretch towards south forms the prime nesting ground of Olive Ridley turtles in the Rushikulya rookery. It’s where climate change has left its marks. The advancing Bay of Bengal has gnawed away at the coast, eroding human habitations. Devoid of settlement, the beach has created the perfect nesting ground for the endangered sea turtles.
Eminent conservationist and senior professor at Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) Bivash Pandav points at inadequate number of favourable beaches in Gahirmatha as the reason behind record nesting at Rushikulya rookery.
“The nesting area in Gahirmatha marine sanctuary has declined over the years, primarily due to beach erosion, which is why a large number of turtles are heading to Rushikulya,” he says.
In the 2023-24 season, Gahirmatha witnessed a congregation of around 3 lakh Olive Ridleys but Rushikulya drew a blank. Pandav attributed last year’s phenomenon to the El Nino year when sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean were above average.
PCCF (wildlife) Jha feels coastal erosion and consequent accretion at the site could be the reason for the marine species to arrive for nesting in such numbers. “Multiple villages along Ganjam coast, Podampeta in particular, have proven to be the best place for mass nesting, primarily because the site offers soft surface making it ideal for the sea turtles to lay eggs,” he says.
What makes this year’s event even more remarkable is the fact that mass nesting did not occur at Rushikulya in 2015-16, 2018-19, 2020-21 and 2023-24 seasons. According to Berhampur DFO Sunny Khokhar, large-scale erosion and frequent rainfall activity in February were among reasons that had resulted in zero nesting at the site last year.
Community conservation
The mass nesting phenomenon at Rushikulya has often been plagued by multiple challenges. Its vulnerability to beach erosion and cyclonic storms apart, predators posed significant threat to the nests. While Forest department has intervened with wire-mesh fencing and limiting anthropogenic activities to reduce pressure on the breeding sites, the local communities played a significant role in conservation. However, convincing an entire community to join the conservation efforts, compromising their livelihood prospects, was never an easy task.
Rabindranath Sahu would vouch for that. Sahu, founding head of Rushikulya Sea Turtle Protection Committee, made Olive Ridley conservation near his village Purnabandha, a mission of his life but it took almost three decades for him and his team to change people’s mindset.
“Back in the 1990s, when awareness on sea turtle conservation was virtually nil, Olive Ridley eggs were a means of livelihood for many in the villages along the shoreline. Some people would collect these eggs during the nesting period and sell them in the local markets for consumption,” Sahu recalls. It was only after Sahu and his teams came forward during 1993 to sensitise people about that things started to change.
“After the protection committee formally took shape in 1996, we intensified awareness drives in the coastal villages. It took almost four to five years to convince people of four villages – Purnabandha, Gokhurkuda, Podampeta and Kantiagada – all under Pallibandha gram panchayat,” he recalls. Now, the sensitisation programme has expanded to almost 28 villages in four blocks – Ganjam, Chikiti, Chhatrapur and Rangeilunda – and community conservation of the Olive Ridleys has been overwhelming, Sahu says. The fishermen community now understands that the marine species that feed on jellyfish helps increase fish population which in turn boosts their livelihood.
To win support of the fishermen community, the state government provides one-time incentive of Rs 15,000 to around 3,662 families in lieu of the seven months fishing ban along Rushikulya coast in the district.
Positive trend
The conservation efforts have yielded results over the years. ‘Monitoring Sea Turtles in India,’ a report by Dakshin Foundation on the basis of a 16 -year assessment spanning 2008 to 2024, reveals the nesting population of Olive Ridleys at Rushikulya is growing.
Estimates of the number of nesting turtles at arribadas over the last decade indicate an increasing trend at the Rushikulya rookery. “The nests at Rushikulya have also shown a higher hatching success than other arribada nesting beaches around the world over the last decade,” stated the newly-released report.
Prof Kartik Shanker of Centre for Ecological Sciences at IISc, who led the study and is associated with Dakshin Foundation says the increased nesting is a positive sign. Acknowledging the efforts and support of Odisha Forest department in the conservation, he asserts Olive Ridleys skipping a site for a year is normal and there is nothing unusual about it. “Beaches can be eroded away and later reform. However, this natural process of coastal erosion and accretion helps turtles in their mass nesting. Turtles take advantage of it because it creates more conducive beaches for them to nest,” he points out.
According to Jha, strong protection measure at the nesting sites was a key factor behind the unprecedented turnout of the sea turtles at Rushikulya coast this year. The Forest department of Odisha government laid out a comprehensive protection plan which started with the seven-month fishing ban along about 120 km stretch of the Bay of Bengal, including the mouths of the Rushikulya, Dhamra, and Devi rivers from November 1 to May 31 to protect the Olive Ridley turtles.
Besides, about 62 onshore and five offshore camps were set up. Joint patrolling with the help of marine police, Fisheries department and Indian Coast Guard was strengthened in six wildlife and territorial divisions to protect the turtles and their nesting sites.
More research & protection
Pandav, who spent years researching on the marine species in Odisha and has a doctoral degree on it, pitches for declaration of Rushikulya as an ecologically sensitive area (ESA) as part of the Environmental Protection Act for the long-term protection of the Olive Ridleys.
“This would encourage protection and conservation of the site without affecting the rights of the local communities. The move will help the government to launch more turtle-friendly activities taking local communities into confidence,” he says.
Prof Shanker and other co-authors of the report suggest that the main aggregations in Rushikulya form a very small part of the total designated no-fishing zone, which suggests that these zones need to be rationalised for more efficient protection of turtles with minimal impacts on small-scale fishing.
Pandav suggests a long-term monitoring to study if there is any changes in the nesting pattern and behaviour of the Olive Ridleys. “If temperature increases due to climate change, the beach temperature will also go up and the sex ratio will get skewed affecting the turtle population as more female hatchlings will take birth,” he explains.
As per Dakshin Foundation’s report, sex ratio at Rushikulya is already skewed towards females but not to the extent seen in certain global sea turtle populations.
“If Ecologically Sensitive Area is declared, the government will be able to ensure more turtle-friendly activities. At the same time, it will also be required to ensure no major industry or airport comes up in the area and no major urban infrastructure is built. Lighting also needs recalibration so as not to disorient nesting turtles. This will strengthen the conservation efforts further,” Pandav emphasises.
Meanwhile, in the post-nesting phase, two persons each have been engaged in more than 50 segments across the 8-km arribada site to secure eggs, according to assistant conservator of forests of Khalikote, Dibya Shankar Behera.
The state wildlife wing is also planning satellite tracking of 30 sea turtles across breeding sites, especially Rushikulya, to study their movement and behaviour. The project will be part of the ongoing research it has launched in association with WII.
