The forest personnel of Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary on Monday night intercepted three fishing trawlers and arrested 15 fishermen, including five persons from West Bengal, while they were catching fish unlawfully after trespassing into the no- fishing zone near Hukitola.
Ranger Subrat Kumar Patra said while the forest personnel were conducting patrolling, they came across a Paradip-based fishing trawler Pawanputra catching fish near Hukitola. The forest personnel chased the trawler and managed to seize it.
The arrested were identified as Santosh Sahu, Santosh Kumar Mallick, Nilamani Parida, Naresh Parida and Natabar Majhi of Bhadrak district.
Similarly, another Paradip-based fishing trawler Rukmani Pati was seized on Monday night while it was catching fish near Hukitola. The five persons arrested for this were identified as Gobinda Dingal, Nirmal Dingal, Sankar Dingal, Gobinda Maity and Budhadeb Dingal of Medinapur in West Bengal.
Yet another Paradip-based fishing trawler, Mahadev -04, catching fish near Hukitola, was also seized by the forest personnel. The arrested fishermen, who are native of Bhadrak district, were identified as Amulya Mallick, Gopal Mallick, Purna Chandra Mallick, Ram Chandra Mallick and Dasarathi Mallick.
A total of 6.5 quintals of fish catch and 15 fishing nets along with other fishing equipment were seized from the three trawlers. All the arrested were on Tuesday were produced before the JMFC court at Rajnagar where they were remanded into jail custody after their bail petitions were rejected.