Kendrapada (Orissa)
Thousands of Olive Ridley turtles inadvertently fall prey to fishing
trawlers when they come for mating in the waters off the Orissa
coast. But now the state is moving to demarcate the sea area to
protect the rare species.
The state will put up sea buoys at a distance of 20 km from the
coast of the Gahirmatha beach, which is the world's largest sea
turtle rookery located in the Bhitarkanika national park, some 175
km from state capital Bhubaneswar.
Millions of Olive Ridleys come near the seashore for mating in
October and November and then to the Gahirmatha beach for nesting in
February-March.
But mechanised fishing trawlers pose a big threat to the animals as
the Olive Ridleys get fatally entangled in their nets. Thousands of
these turtles get killed every year.
In 1997, the central government declared an area 20 km off the coast
as a marine sanctuary. To protect the turtles, the state government
also declared it as a no-fishing zone from Nov 1 to May 31 each
year.
But fishermen continue to venture into the restricted area, as the
zone is not clearly marked.
"State forest officials will now demarcate the restricted area with
the help of sea buoys," Prasana Kumar Behera, the divisional forest
officer of the Bhitarkanika National Park, told IANS.
Two senior scientists of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO),
Visakhapatnam - A. Pravakar and K. Mohan Rao - visited the marine
sanctuary this week to prepare a blueprint for the project.
NIO is seeking permission from Paradeep port officials to put the
sea buoys, Behera said.
Last year in an experiential project environmental NGO Greenpeace
put seven buoys at the boundary of the sanctuary.
In the last two months, officials have impounded nearly 30 fishing
boats and trawlers in the sanctuary area and arrested at least 70
fishermen on the charges of illegally fishing in the prohibited
zone.
In almost all the cases, the fishermen take the plea that they
entered the area as it was not marked, the forest officer said.
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