Madras HC issues notices to Centre, TN on removing ghost nets from Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve

Madurai, Jan 18 (UNI) The Madras High Court’s Madurai Bench on Monday ordered notice to the Centre and Tamil Nadu government on a public interest litigation seeking to dispose of “ghost nets” (abandoned or lost fishing nets at sea) from the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice SanjIb Banerjee and Justice M.M.Sundresh passed the order in the PIL petition filed by K.Pushpavanam of Madurai, who contends that the ghost nets were responsible for trapping and killing of millions of marine species and animals every year.φ
The petitioner said atleast six lakh to eight lakh tones of fishing nets were either lost or abandoned in the sea every year and these ghost nets alone accounted for ten percent of the globe’s plastic pollution.

If this continued, by 2050 the World’s ocean would have more plastic than marine species, he said.

The Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve was at the brink of extinction as a result of plastic pollution and destructive fishing practices. The marine flora and fauna could be saved only if plastic and ghost nets were removed from the reserve, he said.
The Kerala government had adopted an initiative called “Suchitwa Sagaram,” a clean sea mission. A similar initiative could be introduced in Tamil Nadu to make the sea and the coast plastic free, besides programmes must be conducted to create awareness among the fishermen on the ill effects of the ghost nets, he said.
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