IWN Daily Digest — Monday, 2 November 2026
Odisha has begun a seven-month fishing ban to protect the Olive Ridley turtles that arrive on its coast every winter, in a season when the mass nesting that normally defines its beaches failed to appear earlier this year.
As reported by Down To Earth:
“Every winter, hundreds of thousands of Olive Ridley turtles arrive on Odisha’s coast to breed and nest. Protecting the endangered species, however, comes at a cost to fishing communities, which must observe a seven-month fishing ban in the world’s most largest [sic] marine turtle nesting grounds.”
The Odisha Forest Department’s annual ban took effect on 1 November and runs until 31 May 2027. Olive Ridleys arrive in these waters around November to mate, and the females usually lay their eggs in March, mostly on Gahirmatha beach in Kendrapara district and Rushikulya beach in Ganjam district. Odisha hosts an estimated half of the global Olive Ridley population and about 90 per cent of India’s, according to Down To Earth.
Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary, declared in 1997, covers 1,435 square kilometres of sea between Hukitola and Dhamara, with fishing prohibited within 20 kilometres of the coast. The forest department installed 14 buoys in 2023 to mark its maritime boundaries.
An estimated 606,933 turtles nested between 5 and 10 March 2025, yet no arribada, the mass nesting event, took place in 2026. The forest range officer of Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary told Down To Earth that the absence was a natural phenomenon linked to rainfall, erosion and tides and did not necessarily point to a population decline, and the department still expects a large arribada this season.
The department runs 14 turtle protection camps, four of them offshore, and four patrol boats, with help from the marine police, Paradip port and the coastguard. Trawlers must now fit turtle excluder devices, which let turtles escape from nets while smaller catch such as shrimp is retained, and in October the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) gave 1,200 of them free to trawler owners in Odisha. Each device costs Rs 28,000. MPEDA says they reduce catch by only 1 to 5 per cent, though some fishers estimate 10 to 20 per cent.
The United States has restricted imports of Indian wild-caught shrimp since 2019 under Section 609 of US Public Law 101-162, which ties access to adequate turtle-bycatch measures. MPEDA estimates the restrictions have cost India about Rs 4,500 crore (US$550 million), and wild-caught shrimp exports fell from 153,286 tonnes in 2018-19 to 65,882 tonnes in 2023-24.
Shirui Village
A village in Manipur that banned hunting in its forest has recorded 15 mammal species and 321 bird species on camera traps, including the endangered dhole, in what Down To Earth describes as the first systematic wildlife documentation of its community-managed forests.
As reported by Down To Earth:
“Patrick and Pamreithing have documented 15 mammal species and identified 321 bird species in the village’s forest commons.”
Shirui village protects the forest commons around Shirui Kashong peak, home of the Shirui Lily, Manipur’s state flower, and of Mrs. Hume’s pheasant. The village authority imposed a blanket hunting ban from 2024 to 2026, with only limited traditional trapping allowed to protect jhum crops from wildlife.
In 2025, ENFOGAL’s project director and co-founder began installing camera traps, using equipment from an Idea Wild grant. A former hunter helped choose the locations, drawing on his knowledge of animal trails and behaviour.
Recorded species include the endangered dhole, the near threatened Assam macaque and the vulnerable Blyth’s tragopan and Mrs. Hume’s pheasant, along with Asiatic black bears, serows and flying squirrels. The project director said some people accused him of manipulating the footage with AI because they never expected to see endangered animals such as dholes in that part of the forest.
Villagers have extended the protection initiative by three years, covering 2027 to 2029, with the Shirui Youth Club and the Shirui Katamnao Long, the students’ league, joining the monitoring, enforcement and documentation.
Sources: Down To Earth, 1 November 2026 · Down To Earth, 31 October 2026
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