downtoearth-subscribe

No respite for Ridleys

No respite for Ridleys the world's largest rookery of the highly endangered Olive Ridley turtle, Gahirmatha beach in Orissa, is fast becoming their largest graveyard, too. This year's record-breaking mass nesting of 800,000 turtles sent waves of jubilation among conservationists. But, the figure of 6,000 dead turtles washed ashore ebbed this jubilation. Last year when 720,000 Ridleys mass nested, 20,000 were found dead. In the last five years, the toll has reached an alarming 75,000. The turtles die after getting entangled in nets cast by trawlers fishing near the shoreline and in the deep sea.

Along the Orissa coastline the survival for the fittest cannot be applied to these innocent bystanders. Since 1975, the turtles have skipped the Gahirmatha rookery five times