By IANS
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.