Forest and Environment Minister Bijayshree Routaray has prepared an action plan for inclusion of the rare species Red Ghost Crab in the Schedule IV of the Wild life Protection Act 1972 for its conservation.

The Forest Department has taken steps to prevent any damage to the habitat of wildlife, especially Red Ghost Crab, at the Talasari beach in Baleswar district.

The Red Ghost Crab species is found only at Talsari and Christmas Island of Australia.It is proposed to include the Ghost Crab in Schedule IV of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 at par with Horseshoe Crab to enforce legal action for conservation of the species.

These large crabs are active during the day but prefer to stay in the shade and can die in the moisture-robbing heat of direct sunlight. They scavenge on fallen leaves, seedlings, fruits and flowers, recycling nutrients and helping determine the spread and composition of native flora. Most of the year, these crabs are solitary dwellers of the burrows they dig throughout the forest. During the dry season, they retreat into these shelters to retain body humidity and essentially remain there for two to three months.

At the outset of rainy season, they begin a mass migration to their seaside breeding grounds, moving in colourful waves that wash over all obstacles — roads and cliffs. They arrive at the coast and mate at such a time that the females can produce eggs and develop them in burrows for a dozen or so days before releasing them into the sea precisely when high tide turns between the last quarter and new moon.

During this period, the sea level on the beaches varies the least and offers an easier approach, a factor so important that if weather delays the migration, the crabs would put off spawning until the next lunar month. Red crab eggs hatch right away, and young live as larvae in the sea for a month before returning to the shoreline, molting into air breathers.

Ghost crabs dominate sandy shores in tropical and subtropical areas, replacing the sand hoppers that predominate in cooler areas. Carapace slightly broader, square, surface evenly covered with bubble like granules, its eyestalk very long, horns attached to the end of the black eyes, which is seen directly overhead, gastric and cardiac regions with a separated H-shaped grooves, front rounded and narrow chelipeds, markedly unequal, left cheliped bigger than right sides, its chelipeds each side well developed spines, the spines contains small hair, strongly asymmetrical in both sexes, finger of smaller chelipeds broad, tips and blunt, broadly compressed of immovable finger, male abdomen elongate and female in ovate, rounded abdominal flap, rounded telson, sub quadrate, segment to be sinuate.

They breathe through gills, which they periodically wet with sea water. Adult ghost crabs dig deep burrows, comprising a long shaft with a chamber at the end, occasionally with a second entrance shaft. They remain in the burrow during the hottest part of the day, and throughout the coldest part of the winter. They emerge from the burrow, mostly at night, to feed on mole crabs and coquina, although they would also eat a wide range of items, including carrion, debris and turtle hatchlings. They must also return to the ocean to release their eggs, which develop into marine larvae.

Their food and feeding habits are both of predators and scavengers, mostly filter-feeding. They feed mostly on live preys, snails, clams, turtle hatchlings, lizards and small crab insects. They play a vital role in the energy transfer from organic detritus.

The Red Ghost Crabs are found in plenty at Talsari-Udaypur in Baleswar district bordering Digha in West Bengal. The beach looks like a mosaic of red carpets during low tide due to their abundance in this region.

The segment extends from Talsari to Udaypur over 3 km, There is a temporary check-post installed at Udaypur for regulating entry of vehicles into the beach and it is manned round the clock with anti-poaching watchers engaged on a daily wage basis. Signage has been displayed at strategic points for public awareness to prevent any threat to the wildlife and their habitat.