Drop in nesting South Asian turtles
2012-12-21 22:20
Kolkata - Conservationists have expressed alarm over the
low number of turtles arriving on the coast of east India and Bangladesh for
the nesting season, blaming overfishing and climate change for the decline.
Between November and March, several species of sea
turtle, including the Olive Ridley, travel thousands of kilometres to nest on
the sandy shores of Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest.
"Just a few have so far been spotted. The long, wide
beaches of the Bay of Bengal in the Sundarbans look empty," Pradip Vyas,
director of the Indian government's Sundarbans Biosphere project, told AFP on
Thursday.
"We are monitoring the six islands where sea turtles
lay their eggs but we fear they are not coming in such numbers due to
degradation of the sea, pollution and climate change."
Straddling Bangladesh and India, the 10 000km² Sundarbans
is famous for being the largest wildlife home for endangered Bengal tigers, but
it is also a habitat for many rare marine species.
In Bangladesh, which is home to 60% of the forest,
wildlife experts said the number of turtles arriving on the pristine coastline
dropped by at least 50% in the past 10 years.
"It's a very grim picture," said S M Rashid,
head of the Dhaka-based Centre for Advanced Research in Natural Resources and
Management.
Drop in nesting turtles
"In the 1990s we could spot 50 to 60 turtles nesting
in our beaches in a night.
"But now the number has come down to a maximum
10," said Rashid, whose team in June successfully bred a critically
endangered turtle using an artificial beach habitat.
Environmentalists blame a spike in fishing and climate
change causing sea levels to rise and more cyclones for the alarming drop in
turtle population, and they say that humans stealing eggs is another major
problem.
"Overfishing has emerged as a threat to sea turtles
coming to beaches of the Sundarbans," said Subrata Mukherjee, India's senior
Sundarbans official, adding up to 1 500 boats now catch fish along the coast.
"A large number of sea turtles die after they are
caught in fishing nets."
In the last five years, the Sundarbans were hit by two
devastating cyclones, killing more than 5 000 people living in the villages
along the forest.
"The nesting grounds of the marine turtle are being
destroyed due to erosion and deposition of fresh sands. This is happening
largely because of climate change," said Anurag Danda, an Indian WWF
wildlife expert.
"Sea turtles are also avoiding the Sundarbans
because of fierce winds during cyclones."
- SAPA
