90 Olive Ridley turtle breeding areas identified

Chennai: Tamil Nadu fisheries department has identified about 90 fishing hamlets in Tamil Nadu serving as a breeding ground for Olive Ridley
turtles. Besides the recent government order restricting fishing activities in these areas, the fisheries department will also join the forest department in long-term conservation programmes, official sources said.

However department insiders maintain that the sudden love for turtles is due to a pending petition in the Madras high court. However no action plan lies with the fisheries department for other endangered marine species like dolphin, shark and whale.

A copy of the government order said that in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 5 of the Tamil Nadu Marine Fishing Regulation Act, 1983 (Tamil Nadu Act 8 of 1983), the Governor of Tamil Nadu hereby prohibits fishing by mechanised fishing vessels, motorised country crafts and those using mechanised fishing techniques in a radius of 5 nautical miles around the following potential nesting and breeding sites of sea turtles identified by Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute and Department of Forest in the coastal areas of Chennai, Kanchipuram, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Nagapattinam, Ramanathapuram, Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari Districts of Tamil Nadu during the turtle breeding season. The season will be for a period of four months from the January 1 to April 30 of every year, the order said.