Chennai beach resorts to turn off lights after 11pm for nesting turtles
File photo of Golden Bay Resort in Kovathur near Chennai
CHENNAI: Beach resorts in the city will have to switch off lights after 11pm till sunrise between December and March to protect the nesting of Olive Ridley sea tu rtles.This is one of the key decisions taken at a meeting with stakeholders on the conservation of Olive Ridley sea turtles chaired by Chennai district collector A Shanmuga Sundaram on Thursday. The presence of light diverts the turtles towards the shoreline and they face the risk of getting killed by speeding vehicles. In order to avoid such incidents, it was decided to order the resorts and hotels to switch off their lights so that the turtle can follow the moonlight to reach the sea, he said.
The length of Chennai district coastline is about 42 kilometre between Ennore in the north and Uthandi in south. A majority of the resorts are located on the southern coastline from Tiruvanmiyur to Uthandi along the East Coast Road (ECR).
The state pollution control board has been advised to strictly enforce norms related to the coastal regulation zone (CRZ) to provide better protection to the nesting Olive Ridley sea turtles along the Chennai coast. He said that the CRZ-I violations had to be dealt with as per the law. The school education department should conduct awareness campaigns on the Olive Ridley sea turtles in schools and fisherfolk should also be educated, said the collector. College students will soon be involved in the collection of the turtle eggs, marking the nesting site and safely putting the eggs in a hatchery. Their services will also be utilised to release the newborns safely into the sea and cleaning the nesting grounds.
The collector said the fisheries department should enforce ban on fishing trawlers within 5 nautical miles from the shoreline. Fishermen should be asked to fix turtle excluding device (TED) to their nets. The forest department should teach them how to use the instrument. Further, a proposal will be formulated and sent to the government for notifying the nesting grounds of the Olive Ridley turtles and protect them through strict restrictions. The involvement of the local community was stressed by the collector to enforce conservation measures.
About 12 decisions were taken during the meeting, which had the participation of officials from forest department, coast guard, marine police, fisheries, pollution control board, coastal security police, school and collegiate education besides NGOs.
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