MADURAI: The forest department, which is responsible for monitoring and conserving turtle nesting, will be assisted this year by Coastal Security Group (Marine) police, who will take on the additional responsibility of turtle conservation along with their regular patrolling duties along the coast.
While the initiative has been undertaken along the Tamil Nadu coast, the effort has yielded significant results along the Kanyakumari coast, where a whopping 10,000 turtle eggs have been collected this year.
Every year, Olive Ridley turtles visit the Kanyakumari coast to lay their eggs, which fall prey to poachers and stray dogs despite constant vigil undertaken by the forest department. Once the turtle nesting season starts along the coast, the department sensitises residents of coastal hamlets about turtle conservation.
Fishermen are also deployed as turtle watchers. The role of turtle watcher is to keep a watch along the coast and alert the forest department in case of poaching. They also look out for turtle nests and eggs, handing them over to the hatchery established in the districts. The eggs are protected in the hatchery till they hatch and young turtles are released into the sea. Funds are sanctioned every year to deploy turtle watchers from the fishing community.
This year, Kanyakumari forest department downsized the number of turtle watchers from 12 to 6 due to funds crunch. As concerns were raised about conservation, marine police stepped in to lend a helping hand. "We carry out regular patrolling of beaches and keep a watch for turtle movements. Once the nest is spotted we alert forest officials and collect the eggs with their help, handing them over to the hatcheries", said Colachel marine police inspector, F Sahaya Jose.
With this additional task force, the forest department has collected 10,500 eggs so far this year. Last year, they collected 2400 turtle eggs of which 2200 hatched. "After conservation efforts started, this is the highest number of turtle eggs collected in a nesting season. Marine police personnel have been doing a great job, said Kanyakumari district forest officer, Vismiju Viswanathan. The department is probing if there could be any other reason for this surge in turtle eggs in addition to improved conservation efforts along with marine police.
Coastal Security Group ADGP C SylendraBabu said that one of the tasks of coastal security group is protecting the marine environment. So protecting sea turtles - a threatened marine species - becomes their duty as per standard operating procedures. All marine police stations have been asked to carry out turtle conservation patrolling in Chennai, Thiruvallur, Nagapattinam and Kanyakumari districts. "We also work with environmental organisations in turtle conservation and train our staff too for the purpose," he said.
