Three hundred dead turtles washed up along Orissa coast

Three hundred dead turtles washed up along Orissa coast
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

KENDRAPARA, NOV 19: The carcasses of about 300 Olive Ridley sea turtles strewn on the beach along the Hukitollah coast close to the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary recently have alarmed wildlife activists.

An NGO, Cell for Environmental Protection, which made the claim, has alleged that most of the turtles died after getting entangled in the nets of fishing trawlers which were prohibited from entering the sanctuary limits.

The divisional forest officer, Rajnagar Forest and Wildlife Division, Pradip Karat said that the wildlife personnel had, till now, come across about 35 turtle carcasses in the coast.

If there has been more deaths, it has not come to our notice, he said, while admitting that trawling operations did disturb the turtles' nesting habit.

Wildlife officials had reported recently that a large number of Olive Ridley turtles had been spotted in the coastal waters for the customary mating, a prelude to the much-publicised mass nesting on the coastal sands.

CEP secretary Randhir Jena said that the fishing by the trawlers was unlawful when the vessels did not employ the Turtle Excluder Device (TED), an instrument specifically developed to ensure that the turtles were not killed during fishing.

According to wildlife officials, the turtles wer expected to arrive on the coast for mass nesting by the second week of December, earlier than the scheduled.

The Gahirmatha coast, which had been accorded marine sanctuary status in 1997, attracted fishing vessels not only from coastal Orissa but also from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and far-off Bangladesh.

The notified sanctuary limit extended 20 km into the sea between south of Chandbali and Hukitolla near Paradip Port.

Alleging that forest authorities were not stern towards those indulging in illegal fishing within the sanctuary limits, Jena said that steps should be initiated to protect the turtles who had already started arriving in the coastal waters.

Lack of manpower and funds was the biggest impediment for wildlife authorities to contain fishing activity in the sanctuary area, department sources said.