HC suggests to TN govt to ban fishing upto 20 kms from coast

The Madras High Court today suggested that the Tamil Nadu government issue a notification as done by Odisha, prohibiting fishing by motorised vessels, trawlers and those using mechanised fishing techniques upto a distance of 20 km in the Bay of Bengal.
Earlier, the First bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan which had taken up the matter as a suo motu PIL on the basis of a report in an English daily, had appointed advocate T Mohan as amicus curiae in the matter.
When the PIL came up today, Assistant Solicitor General Su Sreenivasan produced the copy of a Odisha government order for identifying turtle-breeding areas and banning fishing by motorised vessels.

The bench said, "It is thus suggested that a similar notification is required from the state government under the provisions of Tamil Nadu Marine Fishing Regulation Act, 1983, to enable Coast Guard to carry out its task.
"This aspect should also be attended to and placed before this court takes steps to identify turtle-breeding areas and to banfishing by motorised vessels, trawlers and those using mechanised fishing techniques up to 20 Km in Bay of Bengal," it said.
Earlier, the amicus curiae had suggested that the state government procure special nets for fishing, to which ASG said the Union government had stated that the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology was not in a position to manufacture and supply on a largescale nets with provision for turtles to escape.

Sreenivasan suggested that the manufacture be entrusted to a third party under technical support of CIFT.

The ASG submitted that an expert committee was being constituted and sought some more time to submit all details.
The bench which recorded the same, directed that the expert committee be constituted as expeditiously as possible.
It then posted the matter for further hearing to September 29.