Around 40 carcasses of Olive Ridley sea turtles have washed ashore along the 52-kilometre-long Ganjam coast in Odisha in the last one month, forest officials said.
With this, the number of dead turtles found on the coast rose to 87, in the past three months, they said.
Out of the 87 carcasses, 56 were of males and 31 of females, a senior forest official said.
The turtles could have died in deep sea due to various reasons and their carcasses were washed ashore, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Berhampur A K Behera said.
The DFO ruled out the possibility of the turtles dying due to the movement of mechanised fishing trawlers near the Rushikulya river mouth.
"We have taken stringent steps to restrict the movement of the mechanised trawlers near the coast. There were no reports of movement of fishing trawlers in the no-fishing zone," said Behera.
The state government has banned fishing within 20 km of the coast from November 1 to May 31 in order to ensure safe nesting of the sea turtles.
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