Union minister of state for forests Jayanthi Natarajan on Wednesday announced a recovery programme for saving critically endangered species and their habitats.

Under the initiative, 16 species have been identified for support. This includes snow leopard, bustards (including floricans), dolphin, hangul, Nilgiri tahr, marine turtles, dugongs and coral reefs, edible nest swiftlet, Asian wild buffalo, Nicobar megapode, Manipur brow-antlered deer, vultures, Malabar civet, Indian rhinoceros, asiatic lion, swamp deer and jerdon’s courser.

A symbolic four-member people’s tribunal on Keenjhar Lake has urged the departments of fisheries, irrigation, wildlife and tourism to play their due role to protect the lake.

Led by environmentalist Samiul Zaman, the tribunal held its proceedings organised by the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) at the lake on Tuesday.

KENDRAPARA: Emergence of millions of baby Olive Ridley marine turtles along the tranquil Gahirmatha beach has brought cheers to conservationists here.
Wildlife lovers are elated as hatchlings broke out of eggshells and began their seaward journey from the nesting grounds at Nasi-2 Island. About 1.68 lakh turtles had arrived at Nasi-2 nesting ground from March 20 to March 28 to lay eggs on the sandy beach.

BERHAMPUR: Thousands of people are thronging the Gokhorkuda beach here to watch Olive Ridley hatchlings emerging from the eggs. Hatching started on Monday and more than three lakh hatchlings have swam into the sea, forest officials claimed. “The process would continue for some more days as 3 lakh more hatchlings are expected,” an official said. Forest staff and locals are maintaining a vigil to ensure that the hatchlings enter the sea safely.

The Keenjhar Lake — the main source of water supply to Karachi and parts of Thatta district — has been receiving highly contaminated water through a storm drain for the past three days, it emerged on Wednesday.

During a visit to Jhimpir, a town in Thatta district located about 70 kilometres from Karachi, it was found that the government had not yet taken any measure to address the problem that is contaminating the country’s largest freshwater lake, which has been declared a Ramsar site and a wildlife sanctuary.

A large number of eggs of Olive Ridley turtles were destroyed due to sea erosion in the mouth of Rushikulya river in Odisha’s Ganjam district where the endangered sea species nest.

“We think around 10 to 20 per cent of eggs were washed away due to the sea erosion,” divisional forest officer, Berhampur AK Jena said.

Around 1.06 lakh eggs were laid by Olive Ridley sea turtles in the Rushikulya river mouth, one of the nesting sites in the state in February.

Very few Olive Ridley turtles had nested in the place, where largescale sea erosion was taking place, DFO said.

BERHAMPUR: The erosive waves of the Bay of Bengal have again started to threaten villages on the coastline of Ganjam district. During past two days, the Podempeta village in Chhatrapur block of the district witnessed the fury of sea waves. The village is inhabited mostly by marine fishermen. On Sunday night, two thatched houses were swept away in the high tides. The houses belonged to PL Appeyya and B Matheyya.

The erosive action of tidal waves has also washed away hundreds of Olive Ridley eggs in the last two days.

A nationwide effort to ban harvesting of freshwater American turtles to satisfy hungry Asian markets is gaining momentum, with Alabama this weekend prohibiting collection of wild turtles and their eggs.

Asia has depleted its own turtle species and has been turning to the United States for its supply, said Jeff Miller, Conservation Advocate, Center for Biological Diversity.

The demand for turtle meat for food and medicine is voraciously consuming more than 2 million wild-caught freshwater turtles a year, Miller said.

A rare black soft shell turtle (Nilssonia nigricans) was rescued by the Senior Manager of Baghjan Tea Estate along with his team of executives, from a dried up pond in the tea estate when some persons were taking it away to eat.

The Senior Manager, Anand Wats, in association with his executives SA Chowdhury, S Tirkey and JS Sindhu later released the animal in a secluded spot of the Danguri river in front of Dibru Saikia National Park.

In a bid to repatriate 800 Indian Star tortoises, which were seized while being smuggled out of the country, Tamil Nadu forest officials have sought the help of molecular biologists to identify their place of origin.

Two types of Star tortoises are present in the country – one set found in the Western parts in Gujarat and Rajasthan and the other type in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and also in the neighbouring island country, Sri Lanka. They are smuggled out of the country for use as exotic pets and delicacies.