Recovery of Dugongs and their habitats in India : an integrated participatory approach - Annual Progress Report III

Abstract

Dugong (Dugong dugon), also called 'Sea Cow', occurs in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Gulf of Mannar, Palk Bay, and Gulf of Kutch in India. These marine mammals are herbivores which spend their full life in the sea. They are the only extant species of the family Dugongidae. All existing members of the order Sirenia (including the Dugong) are listed as vulnerable to extinction. All populations of Dugong are also listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and Appendix II of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). Several reasons have been attributed to their population decline, some of which include seagrass habitat loss and degradation, gill netting, disease, chemical pollutants, consumptive use, and hunting. 2. Major objectives of this program is to a) Assess dugong population status through advanced census techniques and determine its abundance and distribution, identify critical habitats, classify threats and develop site-specific monitoring plan to reduce poaching and incidental entanglements, b) Characterize the critical dugong habitats, reduce direct and indirect threats, c) Raise awareness on the species and encourage the participation of the local communities; and d) Enhance the capacity of the State Forest Department staff and develop/implement smart patrolling tools to improve protection enforcement; train forest staff and local communities in underwater surveys for long-term habitat monitoring. 3. A participatory approach to recover dugongs and their habitat in India: Year 2018-19 was excellent because of active involvements of major stakeholders in this project. All state Forest Departments, Indian Navy, Coast Guard, Marine Police, State Fisheries Departments, State Education Departments, local universities and NGOs could actively participate in implementing this project in the field that not only helped to minimise the dugong mortalities and helped to conserve overall marine biodiversity of the region. We involved the Indian Navy, the Coast Guard, Fisheries and Marine Police personals in our volunteering network by conducting several short orientation workshops with them on dugongs and seagrasses. For example, 15 Indian Navy officers from INS-Utkrosh participated in the program where the CAMPA-Dugong team (ANI) briefed them about basic data documentation on sighting a dugong and other marine mammals in the logbooks distributed. Similarly, integrated trainings towards marine biodiversity monitoring and management was given to group of frontline staff from Forest, Fisheries, Marine Police and local youths in all three regions. An orientation program was conducted with the glass bottom boat operators, to sensitize them about the importance of this stretch for dugongs in terms of controlled boat speeds when a dugong is spotted. Further, these operators were included as a part of the dugong monitoring network. All these efforts helped us in reporting of dugongs by these trainees including fishermen from these regions otherwise those sightings were never reported earlier. Further, volunteer release of incidentally captured dugong by fishermen, identification of leaking site of dugong in Palk Bay, sightings of dugongs by Navy and Coast Guard are all few examples for the outcomes of this participatory approach.