Hundreds of Olive Ridley turtles die along the eastern coastline of India every year

Hundreds of Olive Ridley turtles die along the eastern coastline of India every year

Subject  :Environment

Context : Hundreds of Olive Ridley turtles die along the eastern coastline of India every year, mostly due to fishing activities, even as officials claim a stringent conservation drive is underway.

Concept :

• Around 75 per cent of the dead turtles had clear signs of injury by fishing gears, according to a 2015 report on Biodiversity Journal. Other stated reasons were habitat loss, pollution, unsustainable development in the coastal areas and climate change.
• A Clement Edison, the forest range officer in Velachery, Chennai, said that the government bans trawling beyond five nautical miles of the coast from January to May, the turtle nesting season.
• This move has helped conserve the Schedule I species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act (WPA), 1972, he said.

Schedule I of WPA 1972 :

• It covers endangered species that need rigorous protection. The species are granted protection from poaching, killing, trading etc.
• A person is liable to the harshest penalties for violation of the law under this Schedule.
• Species under this Schedule are prohibited to be hunted throughout India, except under threat to human life or in case of a disease that is beyond recovery.
• Some of the animals granted protection under the Schedule I include: The Black Buck , Bengal Tiger , Clouded Leopard , Snow Leopard , Swamp Deer , Himalayan Bear , Asiatic Cheetah , Kashmiri Stag , Fishing Cat , Lion-tailed Macaque , Musk Deer , Rhinoceros , Brow Antlered Deer , Chinkara (Indian Gazelle) , Capped Langur , Golden Langur , Hoolock Gibbon.