Around 60 more carcasses of Olive Ridleys wash ashore

CHENNAI: Despite the southern bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) taking the suo motu cognizance of mass death of Olive Ridley turtles along the city coast, the number of deaths continues to increase, and inching close to 1,000. Between Friday night and Saturday morning, more than 60 turtle carcasses were found including 20 on Kovalam beach.

State Wildlife Board member Shravan Krishnan, who is also a volunteer at Students Sea Turtle Conservation Network (SSTN), said that around 40 dead turtles were found between Besant Nagar and Marina on Friday night.

“The number of nesting has been very low in the current season when compared to the previous years. Usually, nesting will be delayed after cyclones. It’s expected that nesting will increase in the coming days. Most of the carcasses were found bloated with eyes bulged out, which is a sign of drowning death,” he explained.

On the other hand, the State Fisheries Department has started monitoring the operation of trawler boats, which are thought to be the reason for deaths of turtles. However, the Forest department could not conduct a post-mortem on all the carcasses due to the non-availability of veterinarians and the high number of carcasses. As per rough estimation, around 350-400 dead turtles were found between Marina Beach and Besant Nagar, and around 500 from Neelankarai to Uthandi and Alamparaikuppam.

“Some of the carcasses were sent to Veterinary University (Tamil Nadu Veterinary & Animal Sciences University). But most of them are being buried on the beaches. Moreover, several carcasses are 3-4 days old, on which post mortem cannot be performed,” a volunteer said.

To ascertain the cause of deaths, the Forest department has requested NGOs in the city working in wildlife conservation to depute their veterinarians to conduct post-mortems.

Dr Supraja Dharini, founder of TREE Foundation, who is working towards conservation of marine megafauna in Andhra Pradesh, pointed out the deaths in the neighbouring state were lower. “The administrations of coastal districts have intensified their measures to prevent deaths. However, trawler boats registered in Tamil Nadu are fishing within 5 nautical miles from the Andhra Pradesh coast, which is illegal,” she added.

As per norms, trawler boats cannot operate within 5 nautical miles as the region is earmarked for artisan fishermen. Beyond 5 nautical miles, trawlers can fish in waters irrespective of the State jurisdictions.

During the nesting season (December and April-May), Olive Ridley turtles from the Gulf of Mannar region migrate to northern coasts along Chennai, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. As they migrate along the shore within 5 miles from the shoreline, they get entangled into trawl nets.