A recent oil spill near Chennai raised concerns about how good the efforts for conserving sea life, are. The eastern coast of India with the heavily polluted Chennai ports, discharges of Pharmaceutical effluents over the coasts of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha is rapidly being deprived of its fishing grounds and egg-laying habitats of turtles.
However, it was believed till recently that the west coast with its pristine beaches, lush green rain forests, and natural harbors is nature’s gift to the mankind. But the pollution waves started hitting it as well. The coast has seen an alarming decrease in the number of turtles spawning at the beaches of Mangaluru, over the past few years. Not only Mangaluru, the whole of Karnataka’s coast that includes Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts witnessed this phenomenon. The issue is of a grave concern as turtles, as a species form the visible indicators of marine pollution. They are not the only ones affected, many fish, seaweed and, jelly fish, fell prey to the pollution and are found lying dead on the coast.
The activists working for the conservation of the environment blame government’s silence and lack of its efforts towards conserving nature. Earlier National Environment Care Federation (NECF) has collected 165 eggs of turtles with the help of volunteers and handed them over to Maravanthe turtle conservation society. However, the effort turned futile when the authorities failed to hatch them and blamed the activists for handing over damaged eggs. The NECF also stated that the RTIs filed for the efforts on government’s part remain unanswered.
Maintaining stringent effluent treatment and discharge norms, creating awareness about the conservation in the public through campaigns like Swachh Sarvekshan, prompt action and scrutiny by the government authorities would definitely bring a change. Preventing pollutants would be better than treating it, which should be the driving force behind the environmental conservation.
