Pointing out that mechanised trawling and gill netting is the single most factor responsible for what it called the mass `slaughter' of Olive Ridleys, a report prepared by Project Swarajya blamed the state government for its failure to check excessive illegal fishing near five major rookeries of the state.

The report titled `Approaching doom's day for Olive Ridleys', said the actual magnitude of the turtle mortality would be many more times of the number noticed during the survey since an insignificant fraction of the turtles killed in the sea were washed ashore.

The report said that maximum number of about 13,000 dead turtles were detected in the coast of Gahirmatha followed by nearly 11,000 in the river mouth of Rushikulya, 10,000 inKonark-Balikuda, 9000 in Devi river mouth and 7000 near Hukitola-Paradip. The scene of dead turtles was not confined to the five major nesting grounds but featured all along the 480 kms stretch coast line of the state, it added.

The survey was conducted at the five major rookeries during three phases of reproductive cycle of sea turtles -- mating, nesting and hatching.

The report said that coast guards deployed with all their fleets and armed personnel camping on the beaches of Gahirmatha and Hukitola along with the forest guards had miserably failed to protect the sanctuary area from the fishing trawlers. The other three nesting grounds were without any turtle protection measures, it said.

The report further pointed out that besides trawlers of Orissa, intruders from the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal were seen fishing even in day time in the in-shore waters off the Orissa coast in the vicinity of major rookeries without any protests either from the coast guards or the forest departmentofficials.

It also pointed out that gill netting by using different mess size and filament was found to be rampant throughout the coast during the sensitive period.

The report alleged that trawlers and gill netters mercilessly dismember and kill live turtles accidentally caught in their nets. Always anxious to save their fish catch and nets, the trawlers and fishermen also use sharp weapons to kill the turtles and later throw them into sea water. In some cases they use poisonous chemical to make the turtles immobile. The survey team also detected few dead dolphins on the beaches of Orissa coast.

The report said that most government officials assigned the job of guarding the coasts were themselves not sensitised to protect the endangered species. The complete isolation of the local people and fishermen communities, the primary user of the marine and coastal ecosystem, has posed another problem for the law enforcing authorities.

The chief objective of declaring a sanctuary is to regulate but not toimpose blanket ban on sea fishing by the traditional fishermen. Efforts should be made to educate the local fishermen about the endangered sea turtle and their necessity for a healthy ecosystem.

The report suggested that the government officials should be properly trained to handled the tangled issues like conserving the fragile bio-diversity in the face of livelihood risks of the local fishermen. More ever they would be encouraged to take up the painstaking task of exploring, monitoring and documenting facts relating to the life and death of endangered marine animals and factors affecting to their lives, it maintained.

It may be mentioned here that non-occurrence of mass nesting at Gahirmatha, world's largest rookery of Olive Ridleys, for the last two seasons has become a cause of concern for turtle lovers, scientists, wild-life experts, media and NGOs. In the entire Orissa coast only about 9000 turtles visited Rushikulya beach in March this year for nesting.