Orissa should curb turtle deaths: Greenpeace

KalingaTimes 21 Feb 08;

Bhubaneswar, Feb 21: With death of Olive Ridley sea turtles due to illegal fishing spiralling, Greenpeace on Thursday presented the Orissa government with a clear 'upper limit' target for turtle mortality along the coast from Paradip to Chilika.

Criticising the government for failing to solve the recurring tragedy, Greenpeace demanded that the funds recently released by the Centre be utilised to undertake effective patrolling to prevent illegal trawling.

As of January end this year, 2970 turtle carcasses had been counted along this stretch of the coast. Greenpeace challenged the government to reduce the current rate of turtle mortalities by 20 percent until the end of April.

Stating that this figure would itself be on par with turtle mortalities in the previous years, Sanjiv Gopal of Greenpeace said turtle mortalities increasing by the day.

“At the very least, as a first step, the government should commit to keeping the total casualties this year on par with those in previous years. This would require intensive patrolling to keep mechanised fishing out of turtle congregation areas,” Gopal said.

Olive Ridley turtles throng Orissa's coastline between November and May every year and thousands of them get killed each year by illegal fishing.

Previously, state government officials had cited lack of funds as the reason for their inability to protect the species.

In 2007, the state government received from the Centre a sum of Rs 2 crores for turtle protection. The funds were disbursed in November 2007, Greenpeace said in a statement.

This amount was in line with a Greenpeace estimate of Rs.2.2 crores needed for improved patrolling to protect turtles.

Further, the Fisheries Department had also acquired two patrol vessels to enforce the no-trawling zones and protect both turtles and traditional fishermen.

"Even though the resources are now available, it is ironic that the turtle toll until January 31 is almost 3000 in the Paradip–Chilika stretch, a dramatic 76 percent increase from the average of the previous four turtle seasons.

“While reducing mortality to zero might not be practical, it is high time the Government of Orissa demonstrates its commitment to protecting its turtles, by setting itself, progressively depreciating annual turtle mortality reduction targets. It must start with what is left of this turtle season. This benchmark would enable the government's turtle protection efforts to be evaluated in an objective manner,” Gopal said in the statement.

Illegal fishing and especially trawling has resulted in the death of over 100,000 turtles over the last decade. Even as illegal fishing in the Devi river mouth area continues unabated, the situation in the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary remains unknown, with no independent verification of official figures possible.

“Further, the government is not open to joint efforts on monitoring the mortality of turtles in collaboration with conservation groups and NGOs, as this would reveal shocking levels of turtle casualties on the Orissa coast.

While the government has maintained that annual mortalities from the last three seasons has not exceeded 4000, estimates from several independent agencies place this at a range above 10,000 for every season,” Gopal said.

"While funds for turtle protection have now been allocated, Greenpeace remains committed to also resolving the concerns of traditional fishermen impacted by conservation measures, either through compensation of income lost or by the initiation of alternative income generation approaches.

Improved patrolling and alternative income generation are two sides of the same coin, and both are critical to resolve the unnecessary and recurring turtle-fisher crisis,” he added.