Odisha Gears up to Protect Olive Ridley Turtles during mass Nesting

Bhubaneswar: With the mass nesting season of Olive Ridley sea turtles approaching, the Odisha government has geared up to ensure protection of the endangered species.

A meeting of the  committee for protection and conservation of Olive Ridley sea turtles was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at the Secretariat here today.

Reviewing the steps taken so far in this direction, Chief Secretary Padhi directed the departments of Fishery, Forest and Marine police to operate in close coordination and ensure strict enforcement of the conservation rules including ban on fishing.

The Coast Guard was requested to have real-time intelligence sharing with the departments about any illegal fishing. The institutions like Test Range, DRDO, Dhamara Port, Gopalpur Port and Paradip port authorities were requested to follow the black-out practices to save turtles from confusion regarding the direction of coast.

Some plan has been made to compensate fishermen for income loss during the fishing ban.

It was decided to  set up one Sea Turtle Research Centre near Ghati Central Nursery in the Khalikote forest range.