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 heat is on! Greenpeace activists light candles on behalf of 70,000 hopeful TATA customers who don’t want the port to be built at Dhamra. Will Ratan Tata see the light?
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.
For further information, contact
Ashish Fernandes, Oceans Campaigner, Greenpeace India, 
Cell: +91 99801 99380
Saumya Tripathi, Communications Officer, Greenpeace India, 
Cell: 93438 62212
Notes to Editor
1. http://www.greenpeace.org/turtles
2. http://www.greenpeace.org/india/press/reports/greenpeace-biodiversity
3. http://www.greenpeace.org/india/press/reports/critique-of-the-environmental