AR-News: (India) The graveyard of the turtles

[Barry Kent MacKay]

The Hindu 
27 March 2004

The graveyard of the turtles 
by Prafulla Das 

BHUBANESWAR, MARCH 26. The Orissa coast is known to be the world's largest
nesting site of the Olive Ridley turtles. It is now fast acquiring the label
of the largest graveyard of the endangered species of sea turtles. 

The sandy beaches are today littered with the carcasses of more than 6,000
turtles that have fallen victim to illegal mechanised fishing. 

Biswajit Mohanty of Operation Kachhapa said: "More than 700 egg-bearing
female turtles have been counted dead on the beaches near the Devi river
mouth during the past few days. These turtles were about to nest in a few
days time at this nesting beach." 

More than 1,10,000 sea turtles have been killed on the State's coast in the
last 11 years. 

The casualty figures have been high at the river mouth this month. The
observers of Operation Kachhapa counted 591 dead turtles at the river mouth
on March 22 alone, according to Mr. Mohanty. 

The stench from putrefying turtle carcasses hits the senses all along this
15-km stretch of the beach from Kadua river to the Devi river mouth. 

According to Mr. Mohanty, this negates the claims of the State Government
that steps are being taken for turtle protection. Almost all the dead
turtles were female, and their eggs had spilled out on to the sand.
Marauding dogs and jackals fed on the eggs. 

Mr. Mohanty said that patrolling at the Devi river mouth had stopped a few
weeks ago owing to lack of funds. Without fuel, the Fisheries Department
boats lay idle. 

The Forest Department personnel lack firearms and wireless sets. No
permanent police squad has been provided to carry out sea patrols. 

A fact-finding team of the central empowered committee (CEC) set up by the
Supreme Court visited the nesting sites last month to ascertain the level of
implementation of the court's orders for the protection of sea turtles. 

The CEC had ordered intensive patrolling off the three mass nesting sites at
the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary and the Devi and Rushikulya river mouths to
protect the turtles. 

The Olive Ridley is protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection
Act, 1972. However, in the absence of effective enforcement of the laws,
hundreds of trawlers and gill-netters work within the prohibited fishing
zones, killing the turtles. 

The government continues to be apathetic. Funds received for buying fast
patrol boats remain unspent, while dilapidated trawlers are used in a
half-hearted manner for patrolling by the Forest and Fisheries departments
in some places, Mr. Mohanty said. 

__________________


Barry Kent MacKay
Canadian Office
Animal Protection Institute 
www.api4animals.org