Bhubaneswar, Feb. 16: Olive Ridley sea turtles continue to perish in the hostile Orissa waters.

Dead turtles were recently spotted on most beaches in the state except at the Rushikulya river mouth where trawling activity was negligible, sources said.

Decomposed carcasses of female Olive Ridley turtles were found on the beaches at Paradip, Jatadhari, Devi and Kadua river mouths, Ramchandi and Puri with their eggs spilling out, indicating that female turtles were preparing to come ashore for nesting, they added.

With dead turtles rotting on the beaches of Puri, packs of domestic pigs and dogs could be seen feasting on the meat. The stench of Olive Ridley turtles has even led to protests by tourists.

Stating that a trawler net could catch about 30 to 40 turtles in a single haul if it fished inside the congregation, the sources alleged that fishermen use acid to blind the turtles when they are trapped in the nets.

Concerned over the crisis, international wildlife conservation organisation Wild Foundation has approached chief minister Naveen Patnaik with a request to immediately acquire speedboats for the protection of the turtles.

Last year, the government had assured the foundation that it would take all possible steps to protect the visiting Olive Ridley turtles. But with the toll rising, the foundation has decided to raise the failure of the government at a wildlife congress to be held in Alaska later this year.

In the absence of speedboats, the police could not chase down trawlers, which are used for illegal fishing.

?Old and slow boats, which cannot chase the fishing trawlers, are used to patrol the seas. Besides, there is no provision for night patrol,? says wildlife activist Biswajit Mohanty.

He feels that unless the government immediately deploys speedboats with armed policemen for night patrol, fishing trawlers will continue to kill turtles.

In the past 12 years, more than 1.2 lakh turtles have been found dead on the Orissa coast. The situation is especially alarming at the Devi river mouth, where 1,462 dead turtles have surfaced in the past three months.

Though trawling is banned here up to 20 km from November to May, the government has failed to implement the order of the central empowered committee of the Supreme Court due to the non-availability of speedboats. Besides, not a single trawler in the state uses TED.

The Olive Ridley sea turtles are protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Capturing or killing them could result in three to seven years of imprisonment. Though thousands of turtles are killed every year due to illegal fishing, the authorities have failed to convict the culprits.