Nine arrested for illegal fishing in Gahirmatha

Kendrapada: Forest officials arrested nine fishermen from Balasore district on Sunday for illegal fishing inside Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary in Kendrapada. Officials seized the vessel along with 30kg of fish, fishing equipment and navigation devices.“We seized 10 fishing nets, a GPS device, 2 VHFs and a fish finder from the trawler,” said Kapilendra Pradhan, forest range officer of Gahirmatha. The arrested fishermen were identified as Naren Majhi, Suresh Majhi, Yudhistir Khatua, Sudarshan Mallick, Makar Tarai, Ajaya Behera, Gayadhar Das, Niranjan Khatua and Kamalakanta Mallick.They were booked under various sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

On Thursday, the fishermen were produced in a court at Rajnagar. The court rejected their bail applications and remanded them in judicial custody.Fishermen have been directed not to go fishing within 20 km from the coastline in the marine sanctuary areas covering 1,435 sq km from Hukitola to Dhamra.Gahirmatha is the largest rookery of Olive Ridley sea turtles in the world. The govt has banned fishing for seven months from Nov 1 to May 31 to save the endangered turtles. “About 33 fishermen were arrested and three fishing boats seized in Gahirmatha since Nov 1,” added Pradhan.“Due to the fishing ban, 6,06,933 turtles laid eggs from March 5 to 10 on Nasi-1, Nasi-2 and Eakakulanasi islands within Gahirmatha,” he said. Last year, forest officials demarcated the marine sanctuary by putting 14 buoys in the sea.