Team Herald
CANACONA: A sea turtle that strayed into Galgibaga River was rescued by environmentalists while being caught by migrant labourers on Friday.
Environmentalist and marine life lovers Manoj Prabhugaonkar and Denis Fernandes accompanied by CRZ and Captain of Ports officials where inspecting the allegations made by locals over illegal river filling on the Galgibaga side of the river on Friday.
During the inspection, both Prabhugaonkar and Fernandes saw some migrant labourers working at a construction site dragging an adult sea turtle to the shore from the shallow waters of the river.
“We sensed that the labourers are catching the turtle to kill for its meat, and that is when we interfered and got the turtle released into the waters,” Prabhugaonkar said.
“We saw a group of labourers pulling the exhausted turtle to the shore and that’s when we told them that this is an endangered species, and harming or killing it for meat or any other products is an offence,” he said.
“Sensing trouble they released the turtle into the water,” Fernandes said.
Sea turtles mostly Olive Ridley normally visit the adjacent Galgibaga beach for nesting from December till May and straying and spotting of the adult sea turtle during this time of the year has baffled marine life lovers and the locals alike, Fernandes said.
In the past also, the duo had helped in rescuing marine life whenever they were in distress and they reach at the right place at the right time expressed Vishant Prabhu another animal sympathiser from the locality.
