Kendrapada: One trawler was seized and the driver of the vessel arrested after some fishermen attacked forest guards of a turtle patrol vessel within Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary on Sunday afternoon. Forest personnel fired three rounds in the air in a bid to save their lives. No one was injured during the standoff.
Sources said crew from a fleet of eight trawlers were illegally fishing in the ‘no fishing zone’, 5km from Babubali Island within the marine sanctuary. “Many of the crew members surrounded us and tried to attack us, for which we resorted to blank firing to disperse them,” said Suresh Prusti, the forester of Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary.
“We seized a fishing vessel, ‘Chandi Tarini’, and arrested the driver of the vessel as other crew members boarded another trawler and fled,” Prusti added.
Gahirmatha Beach is the largest rookery of sea turtles in the world. Every year from Nov 1 to May 31, fishing is banned in the area to save the endangered marine species. “We have already seized 14 trawlers and arrested some 90 fishermen on charges of illegally fishing in the sanctuary,” said Manas Das, the forest range officer of the marine sanctuary.
Fracas between forest guards and fishermen at Gahirmatha have claimed the lives of five persons since 2004. In 2004, Shyamsundar Singh, a forest guard, was killed by some fishermen as they dumped him into the sea by tying up his legs and hands when he tried to stop a fishing trawler at Gahirmatha.