Udupi, Karnataka: Local Fishermans have noticed a Sea Turtle nesting site near the lighthouse at Kodi Beach in Kundapur on Saturday. Following this, the Forest Department with the support of NGO’s and locals, are monitoring the place, and enclosures have been built at the spot.
Kundapur DCF Claimed that nesting has already
begun, and it is expected to go on till the end of January. The forest
department will be monitoring the nesting sites round the clock. The local
fishing community and NGOs will be part of the conservation efforts like last
year, he said.
"We are suspecting
that there are around 80 to 100 eggs at the site. Last year, out of 11
hatcheries, around 250 hatchlings made it to the sea. The weather condition
played spoilsport, and many eggs were destroyed. We hope this season we get to
see more hatchlings getting back to the sea,” he said.
In a first-of-its-kind in-situ conservation campaign in the state taken up last year, the overall hatching rate was around 50-60% from about 11 nesting sites. Reasons for the poor hatching rate could be that the female that has laid the eggs was not fully mature, and all the eggs may not have been fully fertilized. In addition, due to high tide, the nests got wet, and a few eggs had a fungal infection. NGOs, including FSL India and Clean Kundapura Project have joined hands in the conservation efforts.
