Bhimavaram: West Godavari District Collector Chadalavada Nagarani ordered an inquiry into the washing ashore of dead sea turtles.

Considering it as a serious environmental issue, the Collector formed a committee with officials of fisheries, forest and animal husbandry and directed the officials to conduct a post-mortem on the dead turtles to know the reasons.

The District Collector conducted a meeting with the officials of forest, fisheries and animal husbandry departments and discussed on the issue of washing ashore of dead sea turtles to be beaches of Chinamynivarilanka and Pedamainavanilanka.

Stressing the need for protecting the environment and sea wealth, the Collector said West Godavari is having 19 kilometres of sea coastline and expressed serious concern over washing ashore of sea turtles from Biyyaputippa to Molaparru.

She said that fishing was banned from October to February as it is time for sea turtles laying eggs on sea shore. She said serious action will be taken on those who cause harm to sea turtles by arranging nets for fishing. At the same time she directed the officials to prevent usage of plastic covers and bottles at the beach which were causing major damage to sea

District fisheries officer RVS Prasad, district forest officer D Ashakiran, assistant director of fisheries Ch Venkateswara Rao, FDO K Vivek, K Bharati, N Sivaramakrishna and P Lavanya were present.