Fishermen arrested for trespassing into the limits of Gahirmatha Wildlife Sanctuary (file picture)

Kendrapara, Nov. 18: In the latest mid-sea crackdown by the state forest, marine police, fisheries personnel and the Coast Guard, a trawler was intercepted and its eight crewmembers arrested for carrying out unlawful fishing activity off Gahirmatha coast last night.

With this, four trawlers have been seized and 27 marine fishermen taken into custody since the government’s imposition of a ban on fishing activities in the marine sanctuary’s limits from November 1 this year.

To ensure a safe and congenial sojourn of breeding Olive Ridley turtles, prohibition on fishing within the limits of Gahirmatha Wildlife Sanctuary will remain in force till May 31.

Though intensified vigil by the combined patrol team has brought down cases of intrusion by trawlers, illegal marine fishing, mostly by fishermen of Balasore and Bhadrak districts, continues in the region. Besides, trawlers from neighbouring regions were also making unlawful entry into Gahirmatha mostly because of the lack of awareness about prohibitory orders, said a forest official on patrol duty.

As the intruders mostly navigate on high-speed motorised trawlers, the less-improvised patrol vessels are no match to intercept them. That’s why they were getting away without being caught on many occasions, the official added.

“The eight fishermen were intercepted last night near Babubali Island, which comes within the limits of the marine sanctuary. They were Radhakrushna Mandal, Nanda Mandal, Uttam Pal, Subhash Mandal, Srinath Manna, Kinaram Pradhan, Shiba Giri and Haradhan Mandal. All of them hail from Balasore district. Today, they were produced in court under provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act and the Orissa Marine Fisheries Regulation Act,” said Manoj Kumar Mohapatra, divisional forest officer, Rajnagar Mangrove Division.