Transponders to be installed in sea vessels across India's coastal areas to protect marine life The project will be implemented on a 60:40 cost-sharing basis between Centre & state

 Transponders to be installed in sea vessels across India's coastal areas to protect marine life

The project will be implemented on a 60:40 cost-sharing basis between Centre & state

 30 June 2023

Transponders to be installed in sea vessels across India's coastal areas to protect marine life

The devices will help the vessels avoid sea creatures that suffer injuries coming in contact with boats and fishing trawlers. Photo: Hrusikesh Mohanty The devices will help the vessels avoid sea creatures that suffer injuries coming in contact with boats and fishing trawlers. Photo: Hrusikesh Mohanty

The central government has approved “a project for national rollout of vessel communication and support systems including transponders on approximately 100,000 fishing vessels in all coastal states and Union territories of India. Transponders are wireless tracking devices that use radio frequencies to operate. 

The project has been approved on the request of Odisha government and in consultation with coastal states and UTs. 

The devices will help the vessels avoid sea creatures that suffer injuries coming in contact with boats and fishing trawlers. A prominent example is the case of the Olive Ridley sea turtles, an endangered species, that visit the beaches in Odisha in the millions to nest. 

Many of them are caught in the fishing nets cast by the trawlers and die. Gahiramatha in Kendrapara district, Rushikulya river mouth in Ganjam district and Devi river mouth near Astaranga in Puri district in Odisha have been identified as the major mass nesting sites of the Olive Ridley turtles. 

The announcement was made in an affidavit filed by Manas Kumar Sinha, officer on special duty, National Fisheries Development Board, Bhubaneswar in Orissa High Court, on behalf of the secretary, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India June 26, 2023.

The affidavit stated that the project will be implemented under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampad Yojana scheme with 100 per cent government funding on a 60:40 cost-sharing basis between the Centre and state.

The central government has entrusted New Space India Ltd, a central public sector undertaking under the Department of Space, as the implementing agency for the project, it said.

The requirement of transponders for Odisha has been catered to in the national rollout plan, Sinha stated in the affidavit. 

The central government has filed the affidavit before the court in response to a notice issued by the Orissa High Court on March 1.

The Orissa High Court had issued a notice to the Centre on the issue of transponders that Odisha plans to instal in mechanised fishing vessels and trawlers for protection of the endangered Olive Ridley turtles on the state’s coast. The court issued the notice after perusing an affidavit filed by the state government.

The high court was hearing the public interest litigation registered suo motu by it on the high mortality rate of the Olive Ridley turtles on February 23, 2021.  

In the affidavit, joint director (coastal), Directorate of Fisheries had stated that the state government wants to procure 1,740 transponders from the Indian Space Research Organisation to instal its registered mechanised fishing vessels. But the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana scheme in its present form did not accommodate the procurement process.

The division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice M S Raman had said on March 1 that, “The court directs notice to be issued to the joint secretary (marine), Union Ministry of Fisheries Animal Husbandry and Dairying, to file a response in relation to the issue (modification of guidelines in the scheme) before the next date (June 26).