Endangered turtles’ journey to death

Over 40 Olive Ridley turtles that came all the way from Mexico killed by trawlers

Visakhapatnam: The endangered Olive Ridley turtles, listed under schedule one of the endangered species list, that began to arrive at the local beaches are falling prey to reckless human activists. The local environmentalists so far found 11 nesting grounds from Coast Battery to Bhimili. According to them over, 46 of them were already killed by the fishing trawlers during last one month.

Thousands of turtles arrive on the Indian shores between the months of December and May travelling thousands of miles from the coast of Mexico to Visakhapatnam, weathering numerous storms and threats along the way just to breed and nest in peace.

But many of them meet a ghastly death during the end of their journey when they get caught in fishing nets and die of asphyxiation or fall prey to dog attacks on the beach.

Founder president of Visakha Society for Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals Pradeep Nath says though the government has made it mandatory for the fishing trawlers to deploy Turtle Excluding Device on their boats, none of the boat owners complies with the order. The turtles need to come up to the surface once in every 45 minutes for oxygen but when trapped in the net they are dragged in the water for more than two hours leading them to torturous death, Nath says. Even if they make it to the shore, they fall prey to stray dogs and poachers.

Having an amazing homing instinct, these female turtles leave for Mexico after laying eggs and the hatchlings too follow them to the place of origin and return to the same shores after 20 years to lay eggs.

“We are trying to protect these turtles having unique homing instinct with little support from the government. Fortunately, the AP Forest department offered to tie up for creating artificial hatchery to protect eggs from dogs and birds,’’ Pradeep Nath says.

He says two such hatcheries have been put up - one at RK Beach and the other at Jodugullapalem. According to Nath, he along with several environmentalists, asked the government to protect the beaches to keep alive this unique phenomenon. In fact, VSPCA had objected to the location of INS Kursura Submarine Museum, the main nesting ground of the Olive Ridley turtles, which now had moved towards northern part of the State. Gahirmatha beach, part of Bhittarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary in Odisha, is one of the largest nesting populations of sea turtles in the world.

Six found dead on a single day
Visakhapatnam: Six more carcasses of the turtles on Wednesday were found on the beach of Sagarnagar here as the industrial sewage and effluents were being released into seas. Apart from dredging works along the port of late also contributed to death of turtles. The environmentalists felt that the piles of wastage being released into the sea could have caused the death of turtles. The turtles come to the beach to lay eggs along the seaside in the wet sand.

The polluted coastal water is causing the turtles to die. RK beach of Visakhapatnam is said to be the place for turtles for hatching of eggs along the beach in wet sand. The local activists demand that the officials protect and preserve the rare sea turtles as these selectively appear along the beach of Visakhapatnam only.

By: K M P Patnaik