DTE had reported on 6 forest guards being attacked in the area by fishermen, in violation of a fishing ban
Photo: Ashis Senapati The Superintendent of Police (SP) of Odisha’s Kendrapara district appeared before the Orissa High Court April 27, 2021 to submit a report on the attack by the fishermen on turtle protection patrol boats in Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary March 16.
The action followed a February 4 report in Down To Earth (DTE) that 800 Olive Ridley turtles had died since January due to the negligence of the state’s forest and fisheries department.
A division bench of the high court comprising of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray took suo motu cognisance of the report February 23 and registered a case.
The court February 26 constituted a three-member panel comprising of Kartik Shankar, a sea turtle researcher of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, Sushant Nanda, director, environment of the state forest administration and Advocate-cum-amicus curiae of the high court, Mohit Agrawalla.
The high court drew the attention of Sandeep Sampat Madkar, the SP, to the affidavit dated March 18, 2021.
It was filed by the divisional forest officer of Bhitarkanika National Park and enclosed a list of cases registered since 2011 against the family members of the owner of the boat that was involved in the March 16 assault.
Six forest guards of Gahirmatha were injured in the alleged mid-sea assault 10 kilometres off the coast by a group of fishermen, who also damaged a patrolling vessel of the forest department.
A case was registered March 16 in the Talchua marine police station by the forest department. DTE published the story March 17 under the headline Gahirmatha sanctuary forest guards allege assault by fishermen.
Fishing in Gahirmatha has been banned from November 1 to May 31 within 20 kilometres from the coast to save the turtles.
Agrawalla had earlier submitted a report on the attack. The court, acting on the report, sought a status report of the case from the SP. It posted the case for May 5 while directing the SP to submit the status report by then.
The panel had visited Gahirmatha March 6, on the orders of the court. They submitted their report March 15.
Meanwhile, the Olive Ridley sea turtles have finished their 14 day-long mass-nesting or arribada on Nasi-1 and Nasi-2 islands at Gahirmatha. Some 349,694 turtles laid eggs from March 9-23.
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