Sea erosion has assumed alarming proportion, gobbling up the Habelikhati Island in the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary. With the constant battering of sea waves, the topography of the island, a favoured tourism destination, is getting decimated almost on a daily basis. “Habelikhati and nearby Ekakulanasi islands are being hit be sea erosion. Habelikhati is the worst hit. The tourist cottage, which the forest department had built about 300 metre from the sea, is now exposed to the waves. The kitchen of the tourist complex is already washed away by sea waves, said Gahirmatha Forest Range Officer Subrat Kumar Patra. “The intensity of sea erosion has shot up alarmingly in the past one year. The tourists’ shed may get completely submerged under seawater, given the manner in which the sea is advancing. It is making strides now,” he said. Both the islands are parts of the Gahirmatha nesting ground for olive ridley sea turtles. The nesting beaches at the islands are free from human interference. These have also undergone drastic depletion to the tune of three hectares in comparison to last year’s beach profile. As a result, the truncated shape and size of the sandy nesting grounds are likely to pose natural hurdles for the mass-nesting of the turtles. The shoreline in Kendrapara continues to bear the maximum brunt from devastation wrought by sea. Satabhaya gram panchayat in the district is the ample indicator of it. The sea has already eaten up five hamlets of the gram panchayat, while the state government has drawn up a plan to relocate the people from threatened Satabhaya and Kanhupur villages to the Bagapatia resettlement colony. The exercise is expected to get under way shortly. Besides Pentha coast under Brahmansahi gram panchayat of Rajnagar tehsil in Kendrapara district is also being constantly battered by the sea waves, prompting the state government to install geo-synthetic buffer on the embankment to arrest sea erosion.