The Madras High Court today treated an article published in a national daily highlighting the mass death of endangered Olive Ridley turtles on Chennai's beaches as suo motu PIL and issued a notice to the government.
Treating the article titled 'Murder Most Foul: 35 Turtles washed ashore' in the daily as PIL, the first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh, issued the notice to the Government Pleader who sought time to file an affidavit.
The Bench directed the GP to file an affidavit with full details on registration of fishing trawlers and whether there had been any instructions to verify installation of equipment which would ensure that the turtles, a non-commercial fish, are not trapped, affecting the environment.
It also appointed lawyer T Mohan as amicus to assist the court in this regard and directed the GP to file an affidavit with all details.
The suo motu PIL, in which the Deputy Registrar will be the petitioner, sought a direction to the government and the authorities concerned to initiate steps to protect sea animals and to take action against erring fishermen.
Some days back, the court had suo motu initiated PIL proceedings after taking note of a January 12 report in the daily on Chennai Corporation's controversial decision to drop the plan to convert all major city roads into concrete roads.
The present article on January 20 talks about mass deaths of sea turtles between Neelankarai and Napier's bridge here and described it as the first such incident in 20 years. It said most turtles were found tangled in fishing nets or drowned.
Activists alleged that trawlers were behind the massacre, and added that they had been sending letters to fisheries department to take appropriate action.
