Kendrapara: Acting on a tip-off, the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary personnel, on the wee hours of Saturday, intercepted two Paradip-based trawlers and arrested 14 fishermen on the charges of catching fish illegally by trespassing into the “No fishing zone” of Gahirmatha marine sanctuary.
The forest personnel also seized 5.3 quintals of fish and other fish catching equipment and fishing nets from their possessions, informed Srirampada Arabinda Mishra, the ACF-cum-Range in-charge of Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary.
The forest personnel of Gahirmatha came cross the two Paradip-based fishing trawlers while conducting sea surveillance at the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary.
The two fishing trawlers- Padmalaya-4 and Gopaljew 5 were catching fish illegally near Hukitola coast by trespassing into the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary.
The forest personnel chased the fishing trawlers and intercepted them. The forest personnel also arrested 14 fishermen for illegally catching fish with the mechanized fishing vessels after trespassing into the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary.
The forest personnel seized 5.3 quintals of fish catch, 14 sets of fishing nets, two fish finders sets, two VHF sets and two GPS sets from the two intercepted trawlers, informed the forest official sources.
All the arrested fishermen from Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts have been booked under various section of wildlife Protection Act and were produced before the JMFC court of Rajnagar where they were remanded into jail custody after their bail pleas were rejected by court, informed Range-in charge, Mahanta Kumar Mallick, the forester of Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary.
Notably, the forest personnel of Gahirmatha Marine sanctuary have intercepted as many as 46 fishing vessels, including trawlers and gill netters and arrested 304 fishermen till date this year.
PNN