9IN0 70,000 candles lit to save Orissa Turtles

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Sunday, May 25, 2008

Candles lit for Ratan Tata, 70,000 ask him to save Orissa's

turtles

 

Mumbai, India — Over thirty Mumbaikars, Greenpeace volunteers all, tonight

lit thousands of candles on the rocks in front of Bakhtawar, Colaba, asking

the building's most famous resident, Mr. Ratan Tata, to shift his company's

upcoming port project from Dhamra in Orissa in order to save the endangered

olive ridley sea turtles. The Dhamra port is being built close to the

Gahirmatha beach, one of the world's largest nesting grounds for the

species.

The candles symbolized the growing number (70,000 at last count) of Indians

who have written to Mr. Tata asking him to relocate the port and not the

turtles (1). So far there has been no response from Mr. Tata to this

outpouring of public sentiment against the TATA port.

 

" Mr. Tata has the reputation of a reasonable man who cares for our

environment " , said Titus Jebaraj, Greenpeace volunteer, as he lit candles on

the sea face. " People have been asking him for several years now to look for

an alternative to this destructive port, in the interests of protecting one

of the world's last mass nesting grounds for this enigmatic and peaceful

creature, which has been around for millions more years than the TATAs

have! "

 

The Dhamra port is coming up less than 5 km. from the Bhitarkanika Sanctuary

(India's second largest mangrove forest and home to the saltwater crocodile)

and less than 15 km. from the nesting beaches of the Gahirmatha Sanctuary.

Conservationists and researchers have consistently raised concerns about the

port's impacts on the ecology since it was first proposed in the 1990s.

 

Mired in controversy, the Dhamra Port area has been denied protection twice

now, compromising the local environment and the Olive Ridley Turtles.

Existing evidence has proved beyond doubt that turtles inhabit the off-shore

waters, while the port site itself has thrown up records of rare species

(2).

 

More recently, international banking giant BNP Paribas has confirmed to

Greenpeace that it is no longer refinancing a part of the Dhamra Port. This

announcement came after the bank had commissioned an unnamed independent

expert to look into environmental and social aspects concerning the project.

Greenpeace had advised BNP Paribas that involvement in this project would

not be in keeping with the Precautionary Approach, as the environmental and

social assessment was not up to international standards (3).

 

" Scientists are opposed to the port, conservationists are against it,

international lending institutions clearly want to protect their

reputations, and now thousands of Indians – TATA customers most of them –

are asking Mr. Tata to place the survival of this species above increasing

TATA profits. What will it take for him to listen?, " asked Ashish Fernandes,

Oceans Campaigner with Greenpeace.

 

Close to 70,000 people have now written to Mr. Tata via a cyber action at

www.greenpeace.org/india/turtles The letter campaign comes on the heels of

over 100 international scientists and turtle researchers expressing their

opposition to the port. A number of Indian organizations, including the

Wildlife Protection Society of Orissa and the Wildlife Society of Orissa,

are also asking Mr. Tata to respect the turtles' breeding and nesting

habitat and find alternatives to the port's current location.