Forest officials on Tuesday arrested six fishermen on the charge of violating fishing prohibition in the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary area in Kendrapada district on Tuesday.
The officials intercepted the fishermen while fishing near Babuballi Island, a nesting site of the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles. The arrested fishermen were later remanded to judicial custody.
Notably, the Government has imposed a fishing ban along 120 km of the State’s 480-km coastline to protect Olive Ridley sea turtles during nesting in winter. With this, a total of 25 trawlers were seized and at least 189 fishermen were arrested by mid February this year for violations, a forest department official said.