Chief Secy Holds Meet on Turtle Deaths

WITH Olive Ridley deaths hitting record numbers this year, Chief Secretary N Muruganandam chaired a high-level meeting on Tuesday with top officials of various departments, including forest, fisheries, Indian Coast Guard, marine enforcement police and the coastal security group, to discuss steps to be taken to protect the critically-endangered species.

- S V Krishna Chaitanya

According to sources, a decision was taken to prepare an action plan jointly by the departments of fisheries and environment, climate change and forests to address the problem.

So far, close to 600 turtles have washed ashore dead in and around Chennai alone, with nearly 20 fresh carcasses being found between Marina and Kovalam on Tuesday morning.

Sources told TNIE that the chief secretary pulled up officials, especially from the fisheries department, regarding their collective failure in implementing fishing regulations and mandatory use of Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) in trawl nets, which is suspected to be the primary cause for the deaths of the turtles.