Higher
degree of erosion at many points of Odisha's coastline poses serious threat to
the routine activities of marine turtles and raises doubts about the continuity
of the tradition of mass nesting by the Olive Ridley marine turtles called
‘Arribada’. The nesting grounds are being squeezed alarmingly and the coastal
vegetation that plays a vital role in providing food to lakhs of mother turtles
and their hatchlings is vanishing rapidly because of coastal erosion and
aggressive persuasion of development projects like port infrastructure by
Odisha government across the coastline. In regard to the nesting activities
this season (2012), things look quite uncertain as the beaches near Gahirmatha
river mouth, Devi river mouth and Rushikulya river mouth, that have been the
regular nesting grounds for the turtles, have lost most of their space in the
Bay of Bengal because of erosion.
