Witness to a mass murder on the beach

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala has a long coastline of about 570 km and is blessed with various coastal and marine ecosystems and their inhabiting biodiversity. But sad to say, majority of these species face severe threat, mainly from anthropogenic activities.A few days ago, a responsible citizen of the city, George Koruth, reported a heart-rendering encounter with four dolphins on the Shangumugham beach. The dolphins cameashore in the fishing net that was dragged on to the beach by the local fishermen. All the four dolphins were alive at that time.The fishermen were aware that catching dolphins is illegal since they are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act and hence they immediately tried to put them back into the shallow coastal waters so that they could swim back into the ocean.But the local tourists who were present on the beach were much intrigued by these gentle sea creatures that many wanted to pose with these fishermen and the dolphins and take pictures on their cameras and mobiles.Willingly or unwillingly, the fishermen complied with such requests and the gentle creatures were manhandled in many ways to pose for the pictures and with all the delay in putting them back into the waters, majority died and along with the waves were washed ashore dead. In some cases, the caught dolphins were cut and their meat sold in the market too.In spite of having enforcement agencies like the Police, Marine Enforcement Agency and the Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department, they have their limitation of expertise and manpower and having other priorities, these kinds of incidents go unchecked.It is not just human beings who have the right to life. We need to respect other living forms and give them their space.A very recent survey conducted by WWF-India along the Kerala coastline mainly on the marine turtles revealed their sad plight due to various human interferences in the form of coastal pollution, encroachments, unplanned afforestation, heavy constructions in the form of resorts, seawalls etc and, more importantly, killing of these marine turtles for their flesh, destruction of their nests and collection of eggs for human consumption etc.We Keralites claim to lead in education, culture, socio-economic development etc. In spite of all that, if we continue to behave like this, it is time for a serious rethink.We need to protect and safeguard our environment and respect other life forms because there are many species, but one planet and one future.