BALASORE: The Indian horseshoe crabs, considered one of the oldest living animals on the planet, may soon have safe nesting zones and habitat along the Odisha coast. Researchers of Fakir Mohan University at Balasore are now on a mission to revive the population of these crab species and secure their existing habitats from predators and impact of trawling and fishing.
Amidst studies showing a declining Indian horseshoe crab population - often referred to as the oldest living fossils - the university established a Centre for Research and Conservation of Indian Horseshoe Crabs in August this year. While vice-chancellor Santosh Tripathy has granted a seed money of Rs 6 lakh to support the activities, the centre is being headed by HoD of Biosciences and Biotechnology department Bharat Bhushan Pattanaik. The research and conservation initiatives are being led by adjunct professor Bisnu Prasad Dash, who has been working in the field of horseshoe crab conservation for several years.
Following inception of the centre in August, for the first time 12 endangered horseshoe crabs were tagged in Balasore by the Zoological Survey of India and Forest department. The drive aims at their conservation, population study and habitat protection.
Over the last two months, Dash and his team of PhD scholars have also identified six habitats - Mahishiali Muhana, Khandia Muhana, Kantiachira and Talapada estuary in Balasore district besides Talachua and Udaballi island of Bhadrak district. Recently, the centre has mobilised many NGOs, fishermen, community volunteers and frontline forest staff to rescue the horseshoe crabs that are stuck in fishing nets or jetty stones and stone packings across the shore in Balasore and Bhadrak. They are implementing beach clean-up drives to remove ghost nets and other garbage and plastic.
To bolster the horseshoe crab population, the centre is planning to revive the initiative of in-vitro fertilization (IVF), which was stopped five years back. The project was funded by the Department of Biotechnology for a period of five years since 2016 wherein artificial rearing of horseshoe crab larvae was done in a lab.
“We would rescue the horseshoe crabs injured in fishing nets or trawlers and bring them to our lab where egg and sperm production was stimulated through gentle electric shocks. This process had a higher success rate than the natural process. Once the larvae develop tails after three months in the laboratory, they are released into the sea,” Dash explained. He added that the university is in talks with the Forest department to take over the IVF technology and put it to permanent use for improving the population of this unique blue-blooded sea creature.
Although studies have shown a declining population of horseshoe crabs, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has put the Indian species in the ‘data deficient’ category. In India, the horseshoe crab was included in Schedule IV of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 in 2009 which makes catching or killing this species of crab an offence.