Dugong Conservation Reserve

In News

• Marine biologists have welcomed the Tamil Nadu government’s recent decision to go ahead with the establishment of a conservation reserve for the elusive dugong.

About

• Location: Dugong conservation reserve would be established in the Gulf of Mannar, Palk Bay between India and Sri Lanka.

Dugong 

• Also called the Sea Cow.
• In an interesting incident, Christopher Colombus mistook them as sea mermaids.
• It is a herbivorous mammal. 

• They live in groups, grazing on seagrass and coming to the surface to breathe.
• LifeSpan: 70 Years or more
• They are found in over 30 countries. (Not endemic to India)
• In India, they are seen in the Gulf of Mannar, Gulf of Kutch, Palk Bay, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
  • Australia has the highest Dugong population due to coral reefs.
• Conservation Status:
  • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Vulnerable 
  • CITES Appendix I
  • Wildlife Protection Act: Schedule 1
• Threats:
  • The loss of seagrass habitats
  • Water pollution
  • Degradation of the coastal ecosystem due to developmental activities. 
  • Accidental entanglement in fishing nets and collision with boats, trawlers.
  • Poached for meat

Conservation Efforts

• Dugong and Seagrass GrassConservation Project: By Global Economic Facility & UNEP for eight nations in the Indo-Pacific excluding India.
• MoUs by UNEP & Conservation of Migratory Species.

Issues associated

• Verge of extinction: It is definitely a late step because dugongs are on the verge of extinction.
• In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, their population is less than 100.
  • There are very few left in the Gulf of Mannar.
  • In the Gulf of Kutch, there are very few sporadic records.
• They were present in Lakshadweep but now are locally extinct.
• In the case of marine reserves, the sea is a type of commons.
  • And coastal communities are highly dependent on it.
  • By designating a protected marine area, we are literally denying the resources to such people.
• The main cause of mortality for dugongs is accidental entanglement.
  • They are marine mammals and have to surface every four minutes to breathe.
  • Fishermen use gill nets and dugongs get trapped and killed in them unintentionally.
• Very few people have been arrested, imprisoned or prosecuted for poaching dugongs.
  • The enforcement of the law needs to be strengthened if you want to conserve the species.

Significance

• The proposed conservation area has the highest concentration of dugongs in the country.
• We have already declared dugongs as a Schedule I animal under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
  • Legally, it is given the highest protection.
• Declaring an area as ‘protected’ means there will be no human interference there.
  • There may be some tribal communities dependent on non-timber forest produce.

Suggestions/ Way Forward

• Massive awareness is needed about the dugong as very few people know about them even in the Andamans where they are the state animal.
• This could be done through incentive programmes: For instance, if a dugong gets captured and is released by fishermen, they get Rs 5,000 if they provide photo documentation of the act.
• Fishing communities should also decide to shift to other sources of food rather than hunt dugongs for meat if they want their future generations to see dugongs.
• The next step in dugong conservation is the preservation of the threatened seagrass ecosystem.
  • Ultimately, if there is no seagrass, dugongs will perish.

Source: DTE