Berhampur: The second phase mass nesting by Olive Ridley at rushikulya rookery since saturday and continued.During last three days the number of sea turtles crossed more than 1.30 lakhs said forest officials.Along with the rare phenomenon,the two phased mass nesting also witnessed the presence of 430 olive ridleys tagged earlier.During 2021-23 we tagged around 1200 female olive ridleys reached Rushikulya rookery and Gahirmatha marine sanctuary said ZSI,Scientist,Anil mohapatra.At that time the turtles were tagged with metallic flipper by ZSI to study the movements of the sea turtles.This year,in the first phase of their mass nesting,took place from February 16 to 23,we spotted 382 turtles with metallic tags and during the second phase till date another 48 tagged turtles were found said scientist Mohapatra.Despite the rain,in the second phase ,the turtles continued to lay eggs on the 5-km-long beach from Purunabandh to Bateswar,which would continue for more couple of days said forest officials.
