The IUCN has marked all species of horseshoe crabs underneath the endangered class and India’s Ministry of Atmosphere & Forests has included horseshoe crabs underneath Schedule-IV of the Wildlife (Safety) Act, 1972. In India, horseshoe crabs are endemic to coastal West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh and the stretch of seashores alongside the West Bengal-Odisha border are house to the biggest inhabitants of the species within the nation.

However marine strandings on this coastal area are on the rise, notably of horseshoe crabs. “The Purba Medinipur (East Medinipur) coast is the longest steady shoreline in India and the numbers of strandings are extra right here than different locations. Over a ten-year interval, these numbers have elevated,” says Punyasloke Bhadury, a professor on the Indian Institute of Science Schooling and Analysis’s (IISER) Division of Organic Sciences and Heart for Local weather and Environmental Research, who’s heading the staff of scientists.

The IUCN has included all species of horseshoe crabs within the endangered class. Punyasloke Bhadury examines a lifeless horseshoe crab discovered on the seashores of East Medinipur, India. Photograph credit score: Neha Banka

Bhadury has been monitoring strandings of horseshoe crabs for a number of years, and helps run a community-level community the place any horseshoe crab that will get caught in fishing nets is disentangled and launched. Previous to the beginning of this community, fisherfolk would disentangle the horseshoe crab, throw them onto the seashores and depart them to die as a result of that they had no use for it.

“We’ve constructed a community-level community the place each time any horseshoe crab will get caught in nets, I’m knowledgeable. I inform them to take a photograph and launch it. We attempt to see how we are able to compensate the fisherfolk and typically we pay from our personal pockets,” says Bhadury. The horseshoe crab is gently disentangled from the nets tightly certain round its physique and launched into the water. However for casual techniques like this community, it’s inconceivable to trace each single horseshoe crabs that get trapped in nets.

Bhadury and his staff of researchers stroll throughout the muddy sand stretch, investigating intertidal zones, to search for horseshoe crabs which may be partially burrowed into the bottom. Just a few metres from the water, a lifeless horseshoe crab is mendacity on its entrance, and Swati Das, a researcher within the staff, factors to an vital element: its tail is lacking.

A horseshoe crab entangled in ‘ghost nets’ in West Bengal. Photograph credit score: Punyasloke Bhadury

In keeping with the IUCN, all 4 surviving species of horseshoe crabs are in danger due to overfishing to be used as meals and bait, manufacturing of biomedical merchandise derived from their blood, and habitat loss. A Zoological Survey of India report from 2014 states that there are two species of horseshoe crabs reported in India out of the 4 surviving species: the Tachypleus gigas, largely recorded alongside the seashore or within the mouth of rivers in muddy sands, and the Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda, present in areas with in depth mudflats with a prevalence of mangrove vegetation.

The report marks estuaries, together with mangroves and mudflats of japanese West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, as vital breeding websites for horseshoe crabs.

Mangroves and mudflats of japanese West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh are vital breeding websites for horseshoe crabs. Photograph credit score: Neha Banka

There isn’t sufficient knowledge out there for the standing in India, however within the West, notably in the US, the horseshoe crab is commercially harvested by biomedical and beauty firms for its blood cells to develop a take a look at known as Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL), which checks new vaccines for contamination. That signifies that horseshoe crab blood can detect the presence of poisons, making it indispensable for firms that take a look at to make sure medical tools, prosthetics and vaccines and so on. are sterile.

A horseshoe crab on the seashores of East Medinipur, India. Photograph credit score: Punyasloke Bhadury

Within the West Bengal-Odisha belt, the horseshoe crab goes by a number of names: ‘bona kankra’, ‘rakkhanpati’ and ‘raj kankra’. “We don’t eat rakkhanpati right here. Typically it washes ashore in the course of the tides and typically we discover it lifeless on the seashores,” says 42-year-old Anadi Maity, a fisherman who has lived in a fishing village close to the seashores roughly 40 minutes from Contai, the biggest city within the East Medinipur district.

Whereas the meat of the horseshoe crab will not be consumed in these elements, the residents of the fishing villages on this belt close to the West Bengal-Odisha border have been conscious of its medicinal properties for generations. “It has medicinal worth and the tail is offered within the native markets. The tail is chopped into smaller items and folks put on it like amulets tied across the arm or the waist to heal sickness and medical issues. I don’t know if it truly works, however folks right here imagine that it does,” Maity says.

“What’s going to the fishermen do holding the rakkhanpati? They haven’t any use for it. So they simply throw it away. Individuals who perceive its makes use of search the seashores and choose it up,” says Maity.

Though domestically there may be little demand for the species, the horseshoe crab may be very a lot coveted by exterior consumers. “It’s being offered right here on the sly. Individuals come right here from elsewhere and buy it from fisherfolk for a fraction of its worth on the black market. The fisherfolk know that it’s a threatened species so the sale occurs underneath wraps. Tortoises are offered right here in the identical method,” says Bidhan Chandra Bera, a masters pupil in Zoology from Dhauriabar village, situated within the outskirts of Contai.

‘Ghost nets’ arrange in intertidal zones to catch marine life in East Medinipur. Photograph credit score: Neha Banka

Scientists categorise the horseshoe crab as a residing fossil, pre-dating dinosaurs, that has not modified for 250 million years. Now, the species is threatened due to shrinking breeding grounds attributable to human exercise, notably fishing trawlers and the shifting of seaside sands for development that damages nesting websites.

Different components which have contributed to the decline in numbers of the species embody the development of fishing jetties that has resulted within the lack of detritus-rich muddy shores and mangrove vegetation. A rise in anthropogenic exercise like sand mining, mechanised fishing near the shore, unlawful prawn farming and the destruction of mangrove habitats and coastal vegetation additionally pose critical threats to the Indian horseshoe crabs.

At India’s longest steady shoreline, the impression of those anthropogenic actions which can be interfering with horseshoe crab populations are clearly seen. “Trawler actions are rising right here. In Purba Medinipur district, the variety of trawlers which can be operational have gone up in 10 years, due to enhancements in mechanised trawling,” says Bhadury. These are usually not fishing trawlers, he explains, however are primarily massive boats which have been customised or manufactured to do small scale fishing actions inside one to 2 kilometres of the fishing shoreline.

The East Medinipur shoreline is dotted with these boats and Bhadury factors to how native fisherfolk have customised them to make sure that they end in bigger catches. “The boats have been principally modified, with very highly effective engines added. They function inside two to 3 kilometres away from the shoreline,” Bhadury says, as a result of the catch is extra inside this distance from the shore within the area.

The West Bengal-Odisha coast has two massive mangrove populations, which act as nurseries for marine life. Round these shallow waters, fishing will be very worthwhile. After the outbreak of Covid-19, fishing exercise on this area elevated as a result of folks desperately looked for different sources of revenue. After they turned to fishing, it instantly impacted marine life, and on this area, the already threatened inhabitants of horseshoe crabs.

‘Ghost nets’ are extraordinarily massive plastic nets with a really high-quality mesh measurement, which prevents catch, notably smaller species of marine life like shrimp, from escaping. Photograph credit score: Neha Banka

The species battles different challenges as nicely: over the previous decade, there was a rise in using ‘ghost nets’ by fisherfolk, through which horseshoe crabs get stranded. These ‘ghost nets’ are extraordinarily massive plastic nets with a really high-quality mesh measurement, which prevents catch, notably smaller species of marine life like shrimp, from escaping. Alongside the East Medinipur coast, indianexpress.com witnessed fishermen put within the nets for the day simply earlier than the tide got here in.

The wind makes the ‘ghost nets’ blow up right into a funnel-like form, and the water drags all marine animals into the nets. When fisherfolk want to chop off elements of the nets attributable to operational challenges, they merely depart it within the waters, through which marine life get entangled, leading to strandings.

Trawler boats working within the waters off the East Medinipur shoreline close to the West Bengal-Odisha border. Photograph credit score: Punyasloke Bhadury

There are environmental violations occurring on this area as nicely. These trawler boats leak diesel instantly into the waters, severely damaging the surroundings. Though India’s Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal and the Supreme Courtroom have intervened a number of occasions saying that each one coastal fishery states have to look into the impression of diesel leak into coastal waters extra significantly, there isn’t any efficient monitoring to carry it underneath management in coastal states, Bhadury says.

The complexities on floor make it essential to have interaction with fisherfolk communities to make sure profitable conservation, IISER researchers say. “They perceive the worth of sustainable practices. They’ve native information of the conservation of the marine surroundings. However whenever you need them to practise sustainable applied sciences, there must be correct incentives or the supply of the applied sciences for them,” says Bhadury. 

Lifeless horseshoe crabs on the seashores of East Medinipur, close to the West Bengal-Odisha border. The horseshoe crab on the left has its tail intact, whereas the one of many proper is lacking a tail. Photograph credit score: Neha Banka

Researchers within the IISER staff whom indianexpress.com interviewed say that criticism in opposition to fisherfolk communities claiming that they don’t care concerning the ecosystem are unjustified; quite the opposite they’ve a wealth of native information concerning the area, the ecosystem and marine life. “However until you give them a sustainable, viable choice with some type of financial incentives, you possibly can’t count on them to do something for conservation. They wrestle for his or her each day wants,” Bhadury says.

Whereas researchers admit that in terms of conserving the species, the challenges are immense, for now, the IISER staff is attempting to avoid wasting and rehabilitate the endangered species on the bottom stage, with the assistance of fisherfolk communities throughout the seashores of East Medinipur, one horseshoe crab at a time.