The bitter truth is that many plants and animal species are in threat to get extinct.The main reasons for this is hunting, pollution, poaching, habitat loss, introduction of foreign species, illegal trading etc… Hunting and trading tops the list among these which has become India’s biggest problem. If this continues our next coming generations would never be able to see wild species but can only see in films or textbooks.
Wildlife conservation is a practice or an act in which the flora and fauna are protected in their natural habitats.The wildlife protection act came into play in 1972, India, its main aim is to protect or conserve the flora and fauna.
Sea turtle which are mainly 5 types I.e, green turtles, olive ridley turtles, leatherback turtles, loggerhead turtles and hawksbill turtles which are from Tamilanadu and are shared among the India coasts. It has been observed that there is a greater decline in their population and the main reason for this is due to habitat loss, occupation of beaches by humans, developing projects, and fishing and are killed for their meat and eggs.
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By knowing this the government of India and the ministry of environment and forests implemented the GOI-UNDP SEA TURTLES CONSERVATION PROJECT in 2003. The state has been given around 50 lakhs to improve the environment of the marine species and infrastructure development of villages surrounding. The main aim of this project is to :
- Know the different marine turtles places in Tamilanadu
- Know their nesting period
- Recording the details of movement of nesting turtles and their species population
- To know the reasons for their morality and try to reduce it
- To determine the affect of machinery and other fishing techniques
As many surveys as possible were conducted all the way in Tamilanadu coast and thorough survey in particular areas.In the course of this survey all the dead turtles their shells and their lengths are recorded. Particular areas like dumpyards, villages, markets are observed to evaluate the action on sea turtles. This was carried out from November,2000-May 2001.
Observations found from this study are:
- Nesting of sea turtles in Tamilanadu only took place in few places.All of the above sea turtles(5) are monitored in this study.The nesting states of Olive Ridley in this state are Chennai coast and Nagapattinam coast.Per year nearly 501-1001 nesting turtles were estimated.
- They come to the nesting place in early December and will stay till April .Nesting of sea turtles has decreased in Tamilanadu.
- Dead turtles were mainly seen in higher numbers in Nagapattinam coast(5 turtles per kilometre).
The main reasons for the death of these turtles are
- Killing them for food by humans
- Due to some machinery used for fishing and unknowingly turtles were stuck in those nests which were used for fishing.
There is wide spears of turtles along the Tamilanadu coast, but killing of titles for food is higher in southern area.Turtle eggs are collected and are eaten by the people in coast regions. There is a greater decline in caring the green turtle from 1970 to the current study(decreased from 89% to 44%).Whereas olive ridley increased from 9% to 50%.
In Gulf of Mannar and Nagapattinam, the olive ridley and green turtle together are 94% in Gulf of Munnar and in Nagapattinam it is 98%.And the rest of the 3 species are of 5% in both Gulf of Munnar and Nagapattinam. Nagapattinam has more number of olive ridley when compared to Gulf of Munnar as well as those present in Gulf of Munnar are immature, among those green turtles most of them are immature. Olive ridley found in Orissa are from Kanyakumari. This shows that olive ridley come from Bay of Bengal mainly from Gulf of Munnar and Indian Ocean to Orissa for nesting. Gulf of Munnar is like a ground for both feeding and caring of olive ridley and green turtles.
Measures took for sea turtle conservation are:
- Unfair treatment of sea turtles needed to be controlled
- Turtles stuck in the fish nests by mistake are killed by the fisherman.They do this to avoid damage to their fishing gears. So, programs which tell the importance of sea turtles need to be kept.
- 90.1% of the sea turtle nests are stolen by the local tribes. So, protection of nests and their hatcheries should be kept with the help of those locals only.
- Green turtles in Gulf of Munnar need to be estimated and conservation action plan should be implemented.
- Tamilanadu state needs to be given higher importance in sea turtle conservation as it has all of the 5 turtle species and even feeding and misery of at least 4 species.
