November marks the beginning of the breeding season of the endangered Olive Ridley turtle on the Gahirmatha coast in the eastern state of Orissa. The first school of the protected turtles is expected on the beach by the third week of the month, according to the estimates of the Coast Guard.
Commodore K V Subramaniyam, the Coast Guard (east) commander, said that a Coast Guard patrol ship spotted a school of the turtles off the coast off Chennai on October 10. "Taking into account the ocean current and the speed with which they are moving, we estimate that the turtles will reach the Orissa coast by November 15," he said. The Coast Guard has been involved in the conservation of the endangered turtles since 1978-79 when a sharp rise was noticed in high-sea poaching of the reptiles off the coast of Gahirmatha. Late Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, had intervened to move the Navy and the Coast Guard to the area following concern expressed by ecologists and conservationists.
"The number of turtles killed has come down quite dramatically from the 1980s," said commandant S Murali, chief staff officer (operations), Coast Guard (east). Along with education and awareness programmes for the fisherfolk of the area, the Coast Guard has also provided them with turtle excluder devices for their fishing nets. "We are also assisting the state forest department to sanitise the area," said Murali.
However, it is not the turtles but their nesting area that is under threat now. Ekakulanasi, the largest known rookery of the turtles off the Gahirmatha coast is facing extinction. This has resulted in a reduction of the breeding area of the reptiles. And things seems to be turning for the worse. The problem was discussed at a workshop on conservation of the turtles and the beach organised by the Defence Research and Development Organisation at Bhubaneswar.
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