Predators destroy sea turtle eggs at Kodi beach

Mangaluru: Predators have destroyed as many as 20 sea turtle eggs at Kodi beach in Kundapur.
Providing details of the incident, Bharath Bangera, a volunteer with the 'Clean Kundapura Project' (CKP), said that the incident came to light on Sunday morning, when the volunteers were returning after a beach clean-up drive.
Santhosh Kodi, a teacher and volunteer with CKP, first noticed dogs around the nest. The site, till then, had not been recognised by the forest department.
Dogs had already eaten about 20 eggs, and judging by the size of one dead hatchling, it was determined that the nesting site was created around mid-November, and it looked like the hatchlings would have crawled into the sea in another 10 days.
Meanwhile, the team suspects that there could be another 80 eggs that have now been protected. About 20-25 eggs have been destroyed.
The forest department officials arrived, cleared the eggs that had been destroyed and built an enclosure along with the volunteers of FSL India and CKP.
The volunteers are requesting the coastal security police, forest department and the administration to deploy personnel to monitor the nesting sites for at least three months. This is expected to happen from November to January.
This is the first nesting site spotted this season. During the last week of November, a gravid sea turtle was found dead. Its fertile eggs were safely kept in a hatchery by volunteers of FSL India and Forest department personnel at Kodi Beach.
There is a growing demand from conservationists to declare Kodi beach in Kundapur as a turtle nesting hotspot. The area is under threat from trawling reportedly taking place near the shore, fishing gear and natural predators. Volunteers monitor marine activity at the beach since 2019.