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Dear Ashis,
It is heartening the the ban has been in practice since 2006. I
thought the Odisha govt had brought it into force only this week.
the fact is that turtle deaths by trawl and gill nets happen when
they get drowned after getting entangled by trawl nets which have a
dip time of 5 hours or so, and gill nets which are like hanging walls
of deaths and cause more turtle deaths than anything else, as they
are cast at sea for days at a time.
Mechanized fishing is indeed banned by the State government from the
month of November to May but with no alternatives for the fisherfolk
community, no demarcation of the Gahirmatha Sanctuary and an
estimated no of 9000-10000 turtles are killed and washed ashore each
year, presumably an equal number of them get washed offshore and
their remains are never found.
Turtles too were created in equal right by God. Only about 20 people
have committed suicide. THese die by the thousands at the hands of
fishermen's mechanised boats.
THanks for the information .
Of course the Odisha govt must take steps to rehabilitate such
fishermen who have lost their livlihood to the turtles.Maybe some
magnanimpous NGO comes up with alternate skills development for these
fishermen.
Yu might take my mail with apich of salt but what we have done to our
tigrs and are doing to our turtles merits serious thought.
Regards
roopa
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