Abandoned fishing nets turn into deathtraps for thousands of baby turtles on Indian beach

Abandoned fishing nets turn into deathtraps for thousands of baby turtles on Indian beach

Thousands of baby olive ridley sea turtles are trapped in abandoned fishing nets overwhelming efforts of rescuers to save them on an Indian beach.

A video filmed on May 12 by journalist, Bismay Pradhan, shows several of these poor animals fatally trapped in plastic wires at Podampetta beach in Ganjam district in eastern India.

Local residents said a huge number of baby turtles had perished though there was no count of the victims. Many felt the local forest officials had not taken the problem seriously.

Pradhan said: "I have seen thousands of turtle babies trapped in fishing nets both on the shore and in the sea.” “I am upset by the attitude of local forest officials.

They should have deployed more personnel to free the babies from the nets," he added.

Honorary Wildlife Warden, Subhendu Mallik, said: “Ironically many of these nets were used by forest department officials to fence off parts of the beach to keep predators like dogs and jackals away.” “They should never have used these nets as they always posed a risk of entrapping the babies” he added.

Thousands of endangered Olive Ridley turtles visit Indian shores to lay eggs every year.