Konark, Jan31: A joint team of forest department, coast guard and fisheries department have conducted raid and seized four trawlers engaged in fishing at prohibited areas near Astaranga.

Illegal fishing has been rampant in prohibited area. Hundreds of trawlers are now seen fishing in the evening time.

By morning, these trawlers reportedly net huge quantities of fish. Fish is transported in hundreds of vans and trucks to Kolkata, Raipur, Balasore and Andhra Pradesh.

When illegal fishing has been rampant in the prohibited zone marked for the marine turtles, the silence maintained by the forest department, the fisheries department, the marine police station and the Coast Guard has come into question.