NGT takes cognisance of turtle deaths

THE southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday took suo motu cognisance of the increase in deaths of Olive Ridley turtles along Chennai beaches, based on an article published by TNIE, and issued notices to the state fisheries and forest departments.

- SV KRISHNA CHAITANYA @ Chennai

The death toll has crossed 500, with 30-odd new carcasses washed ashore between Marina Beach and Kovalam.

TNIE, during its visit to Injambakkam in the early hours of Friday, counted 11 dead turtles, some of which were being eaten by stray dogs before they were buried by members of the Tree Foundation's Sea Turtle Protection Force (STPF).

Chennai Wildlife Warden Manish Meena said all possible measures are being taken to minimise the damage. Awareness programmes have been held at Kovalam and Kalpakkam to educate fishermen on using sustainable fishing gear. "Most of the carcasses being washed ashore are completely decomposed. However, we managed to retrieve a few relatively fresh ones, and Madras Veterinary College is conducting postmortems," he said.