Mangalore: Additional director general of police (CID Forests) KSN Chikkerur said that protecting the wild life according to the act is same in all the state.
Speaking at the workshop held in ‘Sea Creation’ at NMPT Club on March 26, Saturday, he said that today if the person harms or kills any wild life then he will be imprisoned for 5 to 7 years according to the wild life act.
Fish species like blue whale, Dugong, Whale Stake, ganges stake, guitar fish, sea fans, green sea turtles, while bullied sea eagle, cetaceans, reptiles and other rare varieties need to be protected. He also said that his jurisdiction is to enforce the Wild Life Protection Act 1972 and Karnataka Forest Act. It is important to create awareness among fishermen before enacting the law, he added.
According to the act, the fisherman who catches the endangered fishes and tries to publicize it is also wrong.
Joint Director of fisheries Ganapathi Bhat said that most of the time human being are not going to protect the animals and unknowingly kill them without helping them an creates imbalances on the nature.
Karnataka Fisheries Development Corporation (KFDC) president Nitin Kumar said that there are hardly dolphins found in Dakshina Kannada district. If the act make a rule for the fishermen to ban the particular species of fishes then the fishermen will surely follow it he said.
He also said that the authority must give photo and names of the fishes called in every language so that the fishermen will be aware of it during fishing.
During the interaction with the officials, Yathish Baikampady the CEO of Panambur Beach Tourism Development Project said that the fellow fishermen do not catch the endangered species purposefully but get in to the net incidentally. The authorities must warn the industries to avoid throwing industrial wastes into river which harms the fishes.
Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh, SP Dr A Subramanyeshwar Rao, IGP Alok Mohan, KR Anvekar, Forest SP (CID) Madikeri and other officials were present.