For turtle tales, transmitters on call
Feb 8, 2007 - 7:58:12 AM
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Conservationists from across the world have been petitioning the Indian and Orissa governments to protect the turtle population, as the species would be disturbed by oil exploration in the sea.
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By Jatindra Dash, IANS,
[RxPG] Bhubaneswar, Feb 8 - Where do those endangered Olive Ridley turtles go once they have nested on the beaches of Orissa? What routes do they follow? Now a study is all set to find out by fitting many of these reptiles with transmitters.
The satellite telemetric transmitters would be fitted on the turtles at the three nesting sites of Gahirmatha, Rushikulya and the Devi river mouth in Orissa.
'We are going to import at least 70 satellite telemetric transmitters with advanced features from a New Zealand company,' V.V. Mathur, the dean of the Wildlife Institute of India - at Dehradun, told IANS on phone. He, however, refused to reveal the name of the company.
'Initially, we will use 30 of them some time next month and the rest later,' he said.
'The study we are going to conduct is to know where they migrate after they nest, what routes they follow, etc., so that we protect them,' he said.
Mathur said the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons had signed a memorandum of understanding with the central forests and environment ministry for a Rs.35-million project to understand the impact of oil exploration and rampant fishing on Olive Ridley turtles and the marine life off the east coast of India, he said.
Use of satellite telemetric transmitters on Olive Ridleys is a part of this three-year long study, he said.
The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons is a government body to regulate oil exploration under the petroleum and natural gas ministry.
The WII is implementing the project in close coordination with the forest department of the Orissa government, he said.
In April 2001, experts of the institute along with turtle biologist Jack Frazier of the Smithsonian Institution had released four transmitter-fitted turtles from the Devi beach to the Bay of Bengal.
These turtles circled the waters, and only one was seen to migrate south towards Sri Lanka. All four turtles stopped transmitting within two to four months, either due to some technical problems or some other trouble.
'That was a small pilot study,' Mathur said. The study we are going to start next month is a bigger study with more advanced technology, he said.
There is an abysmal lack of information about turtles once they leave the coast of Orissa, known the world over as the biggest nesting site for Olive Ridley turtles.
Conservationists from across the world have been petitioning the Indian and Orissa governments to protect the turtle population, as the species would be disturbed by oil exploration in the sea.
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