Berhampur (Odisha), Apr 14 (PTI) Odisha Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Ahuja Monday witnessed the mass hatching of the endangered Olive Ridley turtles at the river Rushikulya rookery in Ganjam district, even though the phenomenon was affected due to the thunderstorm in the area on Sunday evening.

Ahuja’s visit came a day after Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati witnessed thousands of hatchlings emerging from sandy pits and crawling towards the sea in the same area. The chief secretary discussed with the local forest officials the protection measures for the hatchlings and asked them to take more surveillance measures during the second phase of mass hatching, expected to take place the next month.

Senior forest officers were present during Ahuja’s inspection of the hatching of the Olive Ridley.

Mass hatching which started from Thursday, however, was affected due to the thunderstorm which hit the area on Sunday evening. The mass hatching did not take place in the night, but several baby turtles emerged from the pits in the wee hours of Monday, said Sunny Khokkar, divisional forest officer (DFO) of Berhampur.

The DFO said the first phase of mass hatching has almost come to an end, when millions of baby turtles emerged from the egg shells and moved towards the sea in the last five days.

“It’s not possible to count the baby turtles emerged from the pits when a large number of them crawled towards the sea”, he said.

Forest officials expected a record number of baby turtles to move to the sea this time, as around 9 lakh Olive Ridley turtles laid eggs in the rookery in the two phases.

While 6, 98,698 Olive Ridleys had laid eggs on the beach in their first phase of mass nesting from February 16 to 23 in the five-km stretch from Podampeta to Bateswar, over 2.05 lakh turtles had done the same in the second phase from March 22 to 27.

The second phase of mass hatching is expected to happen in the second week of next month, he said.

Bibhas Pandav, a senior scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), said the eggs which are in the pits are not likely to be affected due to the thunderstorm, as rainwater would not enter deep into the sand.

Hatching would take place as usual, he hoped. PTI COR AAM NN