Greenpeace India launches its latest and most ambitious campaign to protect the Olive Ridley Turtle at its nesting site " The Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary" in Orissa.
Curious and interested fishermen watch as a giant turtle, at least 10 feet in diameter, bobs benignly beside their boats. This isn't a scene from a science fiction movie. It's the launch of Greenpeace India's latest, most ambitious campaign to protect the Olive Ridley turtle, part of our international campaign 'Defending our Oceans.' The turtle crowns the top of the Greenpeace vessel, the Sugayatri.
Olive Ridleys are elusive, and their numbers are dwindling fast enough to sound alarm bells in the ears of conservationists, scientists and concerned individuals. So to be on the trail of the Ridley is sharing a worldwide concern as I discovered on my recent trip to Bhubaneshwar and the famed Devi nesting beach.
Greenpeace today called upon Indian authorities to take urgent and proactive steps for the protection of Olive Ridley Turtle mass nesting sites and the natural heritage of the Orissa coast, at a media briefing on board Rainbow Warrior at Paradip Port. To ensure a sustainable future for the people of Orissa, conservation and development need to be integrated. To drive this process a proactive and participatory approach is vital, involving government officials, scientists, NGOs and local communities.
Over 400 citizens of Chennai visited the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior at Chennai port on Sunday where Greenpeace kicked off its "Save our Seas" tour with a vigorous discussion amongst conservationists, scientists, activists, fishermen and state representatives on best practices towards conserving our marine-biodiversity while ensuring a sustainable future. The need for urgent participatory and proactive measures to protect the biodiversity of Gulf of Mannar, Bitharkanika , Andaman & Nicobar and Sunderban were the focus of these discussions.
In the world's oceans, scientists have discovered strange and mysterious creatures in the darkest depths that are found nowhere else on the earth. But these creatures and their habitat are today threatened by myriad human activities and the consequent natural phenomenon.
