Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has started making elaborate arrangements to facilitate the nesting of Olive Riddley.
The government has banned fishing from 1st November2020 to 31st May 2021 in sea to provide undisturbed ecology for deep sea mating of adult turtles. During this period financial assistance would be provided to 10,666 fishermen families who would be affected due the fishing ban order.
The State chief secretary, Asit Tripathy, Thursday reviewed the preparation for protecting the Olive Riddley turtles along with additional chief secretary forest and environment Dr. Mona Sharma.
The meeting decided to set up 66 patrolling camps to keep an eye on the rookery.
Principal chief conservator of forest ( wildlife ) Dr. Hari Shankar Upadhaya and Olive Reddley turtle expert Dr.Pryambada Hejmadi participated in the meeting.
Gahirmatha on Odisha coast is one of the biggest rookery of exotic and rare Olive Riddley. The river mouths of River Devi and Rushikulya and Dhamra coast have become nesting ground for turtles in recent years.
According to PCCF (wildlife) Upadhya, in 2019-20 over 7.30 lakh turtles laid eggs on Odisha coast as against 4.51 lakh in 2018-19.
