Alarm over future of prized turtles

New Delhi: India's prized Olive Ridley turtles - those high-domed, glutinous green creatures weighing in excess of 100 pounds (45.3kg) - are capitulating to the onslaught of globalisation.

Coastal development, industrialisation and harmful fishing are whittling the numbers of this endangered species in India's eastern state of Orissa, says a recent United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report.

Already a whopping 120,000 Olive Ridleys have succumbed to illegal fishing and coastal development in Orissa over the past decade, ensnared by trawlers and gill-netters that skim the waters during the nesting season.

The UNEP study, based on country reports of 27 signatories to the global Turtle Conservation Network, says the fall in the number of marine turtle population is disquieting.

The Indian Ocean is home to five turtle species - the Loggerhead, Olive Ridley, Green, Hawksbill, Leatherback and Flatback. Of these, the most important is the Ridley, which has the world's biggest nesting sites in Gahirmatha and Rushikulya, off Orissa's coast.

An estimated half a million turtles nest here annually between January and March, a unique natural phenomenon that has these bulky creatures waddling in from as far away as Sri Lanka and Australia. The spectacle is a huge draw for environmentalists, TV crews and nature lovers from across the world.

Low survival rate

What makes Ridleys so precious is their abysmal survival rate. Although scores of Ridley eggs are laid every winter, only one in a 1,000 hatchlings survives. Trawler nets, pollution and poaching kill most of the turtles, eggs and hatchlings.

Once hatched, the baby turtles charge towards the sea using moonlight as a navigational tool. Reaching the sea is vital for the turtles' survival as road lights blind and misdirect them. In these cases, activists and villagers often pick up the turtles going astray to propel them towards the sea.

In fact, according to wikipedia, the villagers of Kolavipalam in Kerala state's Kozhikode district have been staying up till wee hours just to ensure the survival of the visiting Ridleys. Every year, the turtles come to nest in the 20km beach, which stretches between Pavyoli and Kottapuzha estuary, some 45km north of Kozhikode. Till 1992, these eggs were sabotaged by animals and humans too, till the village youth started guarding the turtle nests day and night

According to ecologists, commercial trawling has killed the most number of Olive Ridleys in India. The turtles are caught in the trawler's nets bound behind boats. When they are unable to surface, the turtles asphyxiate.

Other threats

Other threats to this species include poaching of eggs, construction activity on beaches and pollution. Mega ports being built by conglomerates such as Tata Steel, Posco and other companies as well as oil exploration offshore are posing a serious hazard to the turtles.

Disquietingly, while four precious turtle species have nearly disappeared from the Indian coast, it is now the turn of the precious Ridleys. The UNEP report cites various factors behind turtle mortality in recent decades - widespread exploitation for eggs, meat and shell, fisheries-related mortality and destruction, degradation of critical habitats and global warming.

A proposal to construct a massive port (at Dhamra, a nesting site in Orissa) has, for some years, been hanging fire because of the objection raised by ecologists and the media. The project is to be financed by ICICI Bank and involves two of India's most powerful industrial houses - Larson & Toubro and the Tata Group.

The Tata-funded Dhamra port at Gahirmatha beach, 15km from the nesting ground of these sea turtles, is gravely endangering their already fragile population. Apart from a raft of ecological damages the Dhamra port will unleash, it will also have artificial lights, which will mislead the baby turtles apart, from impacting the livelihood of fishing communities settled there.

This is all the more worrisome considering the Tatas are signatories to the UN's Global Compact for Corporate Responsibility. Moreover, the Dhamra port itself is committed to the cause of the environment and is associated with wildlife conservation.

Ashok Kumar, vice-chairman, Wildlife Trust of India, a body that has been fairly active on this issue, says: "The threat to Olive Ridley turtles in India is very serious and must be dealt with on a war footing.

The Orissa breeding grounds are critical for these turtles' nesting and are getting severely impacted by industry and human intrusion. Apart from stricter monitoring from the government in these zones, law enforcement by local administration also needs to be more stringent. Already, there are laws that fishing boats in these waters can only use nets which have turtle 'exits' so that only fish get caught."

But due to poor implementation, this does not happen and this is a huge threat to turtles' survival.

Another common sense approach to the problem would be to install more lights in the nesting areas as these turtles cannot see at night and die in road accidents. So a pragmatic administrative approach to the problem can really help limit the damage.