Carcasses of Olive Ridley turtles on a sea beach in Orissa. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 28: The Orissa coastline continues to be a graveyard of the endangered Olive Ridley turtles, despite the administration’s claims of tightened security.

Official sources said more than 800 turtles have been killed by rogue fishing trawlers during the last three months and their carcasses continue to be washed ashore. Recently, turtle carcasses were spotted at Puri, a well known tourist spot.

Wildlife activist Biswajit Mohanty, however, rubbished official figures and said that the number of turtles killed in the state since November would not be less than 5,000. He said around 700 have perished in the Devi river mouth area alone where patrolling to check operation of illegal fishing vessels was virtually absent.

Mohanty has written to the government demanding that it fix the responsibility for the massacre of Olive Ridley turtles, a protected species, who traverse thousands of miles to reach the Orissa coast for mating and nesting. The turtles remain in the state for seven months.

During this period, a large number of turtles get killed every year by getting entangled in the gillnets of mechanised fishing boats and trawlers which habitually violate the fishing restrictions imposed by the government to save the marine creatures.

According to statistics, while 12,997 turtles were killed in the state in 2001-02, the number of casualties in the next two years was 10,086 and 4,981 respectively.

Though the turtle mortality came down to 3,227 in 2004-05, it went up slightly the next year to 3,242. However, the number shot to 4,046 in 2006-07 causing concern among officials.

“Turtle casualties this time would not be more than 800 so far,” said chief wildlife warden P.N. Padhi adding that most of the claims being made in this regard were exaggerated. Asserting that the forest and environment department had constituted 25 turtle protection squads to ensure safe breeding of the Olive Ridleys, the official claimed that all possible steps were being taken to keep rogue vessels off the “no fishing” zone which included the entire Gahirmatha marine sanctuary.

Rajnagar divisional forest officer Manoj Mohapatra said that while 16 trawlers have been seized in the Gahirmatha sanctuary area during the last three months for violating the fishing ban, another 36 fishing vessels had been impounded in other areas where fishing restrictions were imposed in November for a period of seven months.

“We are all for the safety of turtles but the interests of the fishermen must also be kept in mind. The government must rationalise the fishing ban,” said Orissa Traditional Fish Workers’ Union president Narayan Haldar.

However, Orissa Traditional Fish Workers’ Union (OTFWU) president Narayan Haldar lashed out at the authorities for imposing a fishing ban in a vast area of the sea without offering alternative livelihood options to the fishing community.