Monday, 14 November 2011 22:31
DEVELOPMENT DEFICIT
BY Sudarshan Chhotoray
Much before the nesting season, thousands of Olive Ridley turtles have started arriving in Rushikulya, the second largest rookery in India, to lay eggs along Podampeta-Gokharkuda beach.
The arrival of the sea guests was first found on the night of November 3 last near the sea mouth.
Every year, lakhs of the endangered species congregate on Odisha coast for mass nesting between November and March. The Rushikulya rookery was first invented in 1994. Since then local community groups are monitoring the nesting population and assisting the release of hatchlings with the support from the Government and non-Government agencies. Last year, 2, 52,000 turtles visited Gokharkuda and Podampeta coast for nesting, which took place from March 3 to 10.
To ensure protection of the turtles, their mass nesting and safe passage after laying eggs, the Government of Odisha has started a campaign to set up marine camps in at least 51 places all along Odisha coast spread over Ganjam, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara and Bhadrak districts. Police, Coast Guard personnel, local volunteers and officials, besides guards from the forest and fishery departments, will be deployed in these centres to protect and keep a strict vigil on turtle movements. The joint forces have been asked to save the rare species from poachers and wild animals.
Outlining the Government decision, Chief Secretary Bijay Patnaik asked the departments to guarantee the livelihood of more than 10,000 marine fishermen families who have been affected by the conservation efforts due to fishing ban in this period up to 20 km from the coast along Gahirmatha, Rushikulya and Devi mouth.
Each fishermen family earns between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 in a month during the peak session. It has been considered to supply 25 kg of rice free of cost during the period. Out of 480 km of coastline, nearly 40 km have been declared as turtle movement area. According to sources, during the last turtle session, 62 outside trawlers and 280 fishermen were arrested for illegally entering the protected areas.
Fishermen who are in the receiving end have alleged that though both Government and non-Government agencies are spending crores of rupees for turtle conservation, they are turning a blind eye to the real problems of the fishermen. Fishermen engaged by the Government for turtle protection are not even getting minimum wage. "Though we are spending sleepless nights during this period from November to April to protect the nesting turtles and ensure safe passage of hatchlings to sea, we are getting only Rs 90 a day, that too for 3 months only," rues G. Simadri of Gokharkuda village.
Despite unfavorable climatic conditions and manmade obstructions, more than 7 lakh Olive Ridley turtles had laid eggs during the last turtle season in Odisha coast. But due to lack of protection measures, many dead turtles were found here during the period. Though turtle mortality has come down since 2004, Government estimate says more than 3, 000 turtles perished ashore during last session. According to Government sources, at least 13,000 turtles were killed in the year 2001-02. Since then because of various measurers and protection mechanism, mortality rate is slowly reducing. The total mortality up to the end of April 2004 is estimated at 7,000 including 2,500 in Gahirmatha.
The hatchlings normally emerge after a period of about 45-55 days depending upon the ambient sand temperature and climatic conditions. In Rushikulya beach last year, the nesting took place over a beach stretch of about 2-3 km at Gokharkuda village near the Rushikulya mouth. Due to the late nesting at least 30 per cent of the eggs are lost due to beach erosion caused by strong summer winds and high waves. An Olive Ridley, on an average, lays about 120-150 eggs from which hatchlings emerge after 40-50 days. However, these eggs are subject to damage and loss due to natural predators like dogs, jackals, wild boar, hyenas, crows, eagles, gulls and are also subject to being washed away due to beach erosion. Studies have indicated that only one out of every 1,000 eggs laid ultimately hatches and the hatchling survives to become an adult Olive Ridley sea turtle.
The hatchlings leave the Odisha coast with the help of ocean currents and return to breed and nest only when they become adults after seven to 15 years. During the last few years, the bad weather and wet sand at the rookery played spoilsport and thousands got perished in Rushikulya, Devi and Astaranga and Paradeep areas, says Operation Kachhap coordinator Biswajit Mohanty. He further added heat wave and unseasonal rain not only caused a delay in the hatchling process but also destroyed many eggs.
Similarly, vehicle lights from the nearby National Highway No-5 also cause problem. Thousands of hatchlings die every year due to such disorientation, which causes them to move towards the landward side instead of sea. To prevent such deaths, the Forest Department has put up low level protection nets over a stretch of three km on the landward side to stop the hatchlings from going the wrong way. Volunteers of Operation Kachhap, Rushikulya Turtle Protection Committee and forest department staff rescue and release them into the sea. Apart from this, due to strict patrols by the Coast Guards and forest department at Rushikulya mouth, there were fewer causalities here compared to the previous year, says Sabar K Tarai, a turtle watcher at Rushikulya.
Besides this, Coast Guard ships and aircrafts from Visakhpatnam and Chennai have also been deployed for air and water surveillance to protect the turtles during the ongoing mass nesting season and for this, more than 200 days of patrolling and as many as 50 air sorties have been pressed into service.
In Gahirmatha, also due to sea erosion and human interferences especially, due to the rising population of Bangladeshi refugees, ideal turtle habitat is under threat. The State Forest Department is contemplating an idea to issue identity cards in favour of the original inhabitants of Bhitarakanika National Park to flush out illegal immigrants who have settled there illegally.
Not only this, they have been able to get lease of a large tracks of mangrove forests in the name of agriculture, but later they converted it to prawn farming. Some of them also adopted fishing occupation for livelihood, which in turn posed trouble for turtles for mass nesting and hatchling inside the park and deep in the sea shore, feels a senior forest official.
For smooth running of nesting and hatchling of the rare turtles, we have set up 40 watch centers along the Odisha coast, besides implementing Odisha Maritime Fishing Regulation Act (OMFRA), distributing turtle exclusive devices (TED), deploying coast guards and conducting motivation camps with at least 10 NGOs to educate locals, informed a forest official. However, a turtle expert Mangaraj Panda said TEDs are not used by any trawler though there are more than 3,000 trawlers, including 1,000 licensed trawlers, plying inside Odisha coast.
Due to lack of integrated coastal management and turtle protection mechanism, these endangered species are under grave threat. He further clarified the State Government has virtually failed to implement OMFRA Act, which bans fishing five km off the sea coast and checking outside trawlers. Because of underutilisation of infrastructure support to purchase patrolling boats and hiring manpower, Odisha has witnessed a large scale death of these rare turtles.
According to Biswajit Mohanty, during the last 11 years, more than 1.15 lakh turtles have died on the Odisha coast. Even through the Supreme Court had ordered in March 2003 to protect the sea turtles, the State Government is dilly-dallying the enforcement. To oversee the implementation of the court order, a Central committee had also visited the State during February, 2004.
The committee under the chairmanship of PV Jayakrishnan after visiting various turtle nesting places in the State recommended launching a turtle project like the project for tigers in the State which can better protect the visiting turtles. The committee also expressed concern over growing pollution by existing chemical factories and unchecked trawler movement. It asked the State Government to promulgate ban on licensing trawlers. For the safe protection of nesting and breeding, Indian Oil had given
Rs 1 crore to the State forest department to buy patrolling boats, but the department is holding the money over last four years. Similarly, the Government of India had sanctioned Rs 1 crore to the State Fisheries Department to buy patrolling boats and use of TEDs, but the latter is yet to spend the money.
The other major treats for turtles nesting are Reliance's two proposed off shore oil drilling and exploration projects inside the Bay of Bengal, one 90 km off Rushikulya coast, and the other 60 km off Gahiramatha coast.
The Rushikulya river mouth is also under threat from the proposed Crude Oil (COT) project of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited at Kantiagada village. If the project comes up, the mass nesting site would be lost for over, feels locals. Meanwhile, the environment groups in Odisha are up in arms against a fertiliser plant, based in Paradeep. According to them, the effluents from the fertiliser unit are posing a serious threat to the turtles.
(The writer is a senior freelance journalist)
Published on 15th November 2011, THE PIONEER, BHUBANESWAR
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