No room for turtles in Tata development

August 21, 2008

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Greenpeace activists dressed as Turtles engage staff and patrons of the Blue Hotel in Woolloomoollo, Sydney to highlight the effects the Dharma Port development in India will have on the habitat of the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle.

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Sydney, Australia — Two Greenpeace activists dressed as turtles tried to check in at Sydney's Blue Hotel. The hotel is a subsidiary of Indian industrial giant Tata, whose port construction is threatening the habitat of endangered Olive Ridley Sea Turtles and a valuable ecosystem.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific is taking action at home in support of Greenpeace India's campaign. Similar actions to this one at the Blue Hotel are taking place around the world by Greenpeace, with the aim of persuading Tata to reconsider the location of its port.

The proposed construction is in Orissa, India, home of one of the world's largest mass nesting sites of these turtles. Every year, between November and May, hundreds of thousands of the turtles congregate and mate in the coastal waters, before the females struggle up the beach to nest. The port is also just 5 km from the Bhitarkanika National Park, a biodiversity hotspot. The national park contains the second largest mangrove ecosystem in India, and is home to the largest population of saltwater crocodiles in India and more than 215 species of bird.

The port poses a threat to the turtles and habitat through related dredging, construction, light and noise pollution, and the risk of oil and chemical spills. Despite stating that they would reconsider the project in light of environmental considerations, the Tata Group has failed to keep its promise and live up to its environmentally conscious image.

Watch video footage of an Oliver Ridley turtle and construction work at the site (below)