More than 1,200 turtles, now found only in the deep seas along the eastern coast of India and Sri Lanka, were washed ashore on a 51 km stretch of the Orissa coast between the mouth of rivers Mahanadi and Devi -- in merely 21 days, between January 1-20.

An official report said that about half of the dead turtles were females. While the Orissa Fisheries Department is conducting post-mortems on the turtles to establish the cause of death, marine life experts are certain that they died after landing in the antiquated nets of deep-sea fishing trawlers.

``The fact that half the dead turtles were male indicates that they died after getting caught in the fishing nets, because a male turtle never even ventures close to the shore in its 80-100 year life span,'' a wildlife enthusiast says.

Thefemale, however, comes ashore to lay eggs and returns to the sea within a few hours. They come to the shore in their hundreds, as part of a school, dig burrows to lay eggs and return, he said.

State fisheries deputy director Rakhal Shyam Mishra said he had asked the assistant marine director to enumerate the dead turtles. The Sandhakhuda-Jatadhari stretch reported the highest at 324, the Akash Diha-Devi mouth span saw only 58 dead turtles----the lowest---- which probably indicates that the turtle population in the area is comparatively lower.

However, putting a number on the turtle population can be a dangerously erratic exercise. A rough estimate is arrived at by counting the number of nests per square metre. India is one of the rare sites that the endangered species favours, as they no longer visit sites in South America.

Mishra said that the turtles were killed in non-prohibited areas and were carried ashore, as the coast guard had effectively contained fishing in the prohibited areas.

However,this claim does not go down well with preservationists. The fisheries and the wildlife department, which should logically be leading efforts to save the turtle, lack the wherewithal to deal with the violators; and the coast guards say that they cannot reasonably be expected to con all their energy towards saving the turtle in view of its other more pressing duties.

The trawler population in the area is too large and the coastline too extensive for effective policing, they say. The use of the gill net is believed to be the main cause of the high mortality of the Ridley turtle, but Mishra says that natural stress is also an important factor.

He said the Department of Fisheries and Project Swrjya (PS), a Non-Government Organisation, would jointly hold training camps at Paradeep and Dhamra soon to fix Turtle Excluder Device (TED) on trawlers that will minimise turtle deaths.

Once the TED is fixed, there would be no need for a ban on trawler fishing, he said. The assistant director, marines, has beendirected to ensure use of monofilament nets, instead of multifilament to avoid turtle trapping. The defiant trawlers would be booked under the Orissa Marine Fisheries Regulation Act, he said.