Kendrapara, March 4: The ongoing cease work by ground-level forest personnel has adversely affected the annual watch and vigil exercise of endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles along the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary in Kendrapara district.

The strike by foresters and forest staff entered the 11th day today as the agitating employees are seeking salary and status on par with their counterparts in state police.

More than 30 foresters and forest guards have stayed away from their daily work in the forest division.

They constituted the core of turtle protection camps that have come up to ensure the safety of turtles.

Thus, protection measures have received a setback following the indefinite agitation, said Manoj Kumar Mahapatra, divisional forest officer (DFO) Rajnagar Mangrove (Wildlife) Forest Division.

“To keep a tab on trawler intrusion, the forest department had set up 16 ‘watch and vigil’ camps. Sixty-five forest personnel were maintaining round-the-clock vigil to stop trawler intrusion and create hospitable environs for the marine animals. Now the manpower is reduced by 50 per cent following the agitation. Now those manning the patrol camps are mostly contractual workers. However, the patrolling exercise is still going on, though it is now on a lesser scale,” said the DFO.

“We have requested the state police to depute more personnel in the mid-sea patrolling exercise. Local youths and fishermen have also been engaged in the protection work on a daily-wage basis to make up the loss of manpower,” he said.

The exercise to safeguard the turtles ahead of the mass nesting of these marine animals is being continued in a coordinated manner with Coast Guard (Paradip), state marine fisheries and marine wing of state police lending helping hand in the annual turtle conservation drive, said an official.