Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: Goa may be boasting of five of its beaches being notified as protected sites for sea turtle nesting; but the marine life enthusiasts and environmentalist feel that this is just a baby step and lot has to be done so that the sea turtles which are of vital importance to the marine and coastal life survive to live through their life.
During the nineties when the news of the mother Ridley’s arriving on the coast of these beaches to nest appeared on the news papers, the forest department in a hurry declared Morjim and Mandrem in the north, and Agonda, Talpona and Galgibag in the south as sea turtle nesting sites.
Locals didn’t even had much knowledge of what these nesting sites were and since then these unilateral process from the department has created more trust deficits between them and the local communities.
On the eve of the World Environment Day, Abhijit Prabhudesai who is fighting many a battles for the conservation and preservation of the environment says that the whole problem starts with the word environment and word Nature in place of environment would have suited best.
He says that once you remove humans from the environment, the environment becomes a resource to be used and misused to satisfy the needs of the people.
Talking specifically about the olive Ridley turtles conservation project in Goa, Prabhudesai says that when we talk about protecting and propagating the olive Ridley’s we cannot separate the sea creatures from the human beings living in the vicinity of these beach.
No conservation program is successful without involvement of the local communities, and till now except for the employment of guards who mostly are locals, local communities are not brought on board he feels.
Goa being a beach tourist destination there is present a conflict between these harmless sea reptile and the tourism operators plying their trade on the beach.
Unfortunately also for the shy creature the peak tourism season overlaps with their nesting season which should start from November but now the first mother Ridley only arrives in late December or beginning of January.
Apart from natural forces, abandoned nets in the sea, injuries from mechanised boats, high tourist density, beach-driving, lights, sounds, plastics, temporary structures and tourist footfall on these beaches presents a hazard to natural nests, nesting mothers and incubating eggs.
How serious the authorities are about the conservation program can be gauged by their efforts, apart from employing a few guards whose job is to shift the turtle eggs into the enclosures there is absolutely nothing that has been done say environmentalist.
Only documentation that is done is how many turtles arrived, how many eggs laid and how many hatclings got released in the waters informed Manoj Prabhugaonkar.
Adding further Prabhugaonkar says that support from local communities is critical for the success of any conservation programme. “Over the past decade, the number of olive ridley nestings has dwindled dangerously on Galgibagha beach, last few years only a few mother Ridley’s nested on the beach, there has to be a thorough study to find out the reasons behind this” Prabhugaonkar said.
However the silver lining is post 2015 the numbers of mother Ridley’s nesting on Agonda beach has increased manifold, records show that during last seven years on an average thirty nesting occurred on the beach.
Locals say that since the beach was opened for tourism post 2015 the olive Ridley nesting has increased from about 5 to 10 earlier to about 30 now.
Many who are in tourism activities here feel that the standoff over beach-use and the way in which we view these sea-turtles and their right to thrive needs revisiting.
Today Olive ridley sea turtles are classified as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List; the primary reason is the decline of the adult population. Some estimates indicate that the number of baby hatchlings that survive to adulthood can be as low as one in ten thousand, and the proper implementation of the conservation program is a necessity then anything else.
The direct harvest of adults and eggs, incidental capture in commercial fisheries and loss of nesting habitat are the main threats to this species.
If the sea turtle conservation program has to successed than the authorities should mobilize the local community and streamline their conservation efforts by surveying current levels of understanding, and educating local villagers about sea turtle conservation issues.
Also educating villagers in coastal regions adjacent to the nesting sites, creating a local network, providing training workshops for community organizations for sea turtle protection and conservation educational programs utilizing slides and films about sea turtles and sea turtle conservation issues in villages and schools many feel.
Its important to promote the long term survival of the sea turtle population while simultaneously, protecting the welfare and needs of the nearby rural communities
that depend on the coastal resources.
But the seriousness of the department is visible as the guards who work for the program are on temporary basis since last 20 years with a meagre salary, their rest room is built with palm leaves and last but not the least the enclosures have a bright green plastic net to welcome the hatching when they come up from the sand, these speaks volumes of Goa serious are our authorities said Prabhugaonkar.
There needs wholesome efforts from top to bottom and the forest department has to start thinking out of the box and start tagging, keeping, clearing the ghost nets floating and from the sea bed, clearing plastic from the sea and the nesting sites and why not to keep the babies under the care till they become little big, otherwise the conservation program will only work best on paper and not on the nesting sites of Goa, environmentalist feel.
