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.
olive ridley turtles
A satellite-tagged Olive Ridley turtle from Odisha has travelled 6,719 km in 271 days to waters east of Sri Lanka, an early result from a tracking programme that aims to follow a Schedule I species well beyond the nesting beaches where its conservation has traditionally focused.
Odisha switched on a new command centre for its forests on 22 July, built to watch over the state’s parks, sanctuaries and elephant corridors in something close to real time.
India’s eastern coastline and its island territories are, in documentary terms, some of the most ecologically significant and most overlooked landscapes in the country.
India has close to 30 species of freshwater turtles and tortoises. Seventeen of them carry Schedule I protection under the Wildlife Protection Act — the same schedule that covers tigers. Most people have never heard of a single one.
In an endeavour to ensure the safety of turtles during nesting and hatching seasons, wildlife officials and stakeholders […]