Devi River

Devi river is one of the principal distributaries of Mahanadhi. It flows through Jagatsinghpur district and Puri district across Odisha state in India and joins Bay of Bengal.

The river forms the final part of a great network of Mahanadi river. Katjuri (Kathajodi) river is the main southern distributary of Mahanadi river branching off at Cuttack, Odisha. Katjuri river later acquires the name Devi as it flows further east. The river flows through Alipingal, Macchagaon and Naugaon blocks in Jagatsinghpur district and Astaranga and Kanas blocks in Puri district. It reaches Bay of Bengal 70 kilometres (43 mi) south of the mouth of Mahanadhi river, a short distance from the border of Cuttack and Puri districts. The mouth of the river is surrounded by dense forests absent of inhabitants.

The river is navigable till Machgaon by small sloops. It is one of the best tidal channels in Orissa, but, yet big vessels can not enter the river upstream due to a large sediment of sand in the mouth of the river. Two fishermen were killed and two injured when a boat capsized near Astarang in the Devi River on 13 May 1988.

The mouth of the Devi river serves as a nesting ground for olive ridley sea turtles during their breeding season. The first rookery in this area north of Puri was discovered in 1981. Nesting occurs on mainland India and dynamic sand bars which appear and change forms from year to year. About 800,000 turtles come to this region every winter for breeding. However, the turtle nesting has declined in recent years due to mass death believed to be brought about by increased mechanised fishing. Over 6,000 olive ridleys were killed in year 2003 alone. According to a 2007 estimate, over 130,000 turtles have been found dead on these beaches over the previous 13 years. The effort to set aside the mouth of Devi River and Rushikulya River as sanctuaries for olive ridley turtles were opposed by local fishing communities.

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