Greenpeace activists blockade the headquarters of the TATA Group, demanding Mr. Ratan Tata halt construction on TATA’s Dhamra port in Orissa, which threatens the endangered olive ridley sea turtles.
Merriam-Webster has this entry under 'ta-ta'; Etymology: baby talk-used to express farewell.
That's apt, considering that the TATA corporation could soon be
making us say goodbye to of one of India's largest marine reserves
- Gahirmatha, and with it one of the world's few remaining Olive
Ridley turtle nesting grounds.
Every year, between 200,000 to 500,000 turtles make their way to
the mass nesting beaches of Gahirmatha on India's east coast.
This is just about 12 kilometres away from a giant port being
constructed by TATA at Dhamra.
TATA is India's largest corporation and has a growing
international empire, with its recent acquisitions of Anglo-Dutch
steel maker Corus and the Jaguar and Land Rover brands.
In India, the company's reputation for social responsibility has
been considerably tarnished over the last decade, and its
performance on the Dhamra project is one of the reasons.
Last tango for the turtles?
Picture this if you will: it is night on a remote and isolated
beach, the burning heat of the day is a fading memory, dissipated
by a strong southerly wind, and the sky is incredibly star
spangled.
Amidst the waves near the water's edge there gradually appear
not one, not a dozen, but literally hundreds of mound-like shapes -
female sea turtles, making their laborious way up the beach to lay
their eggs.
The turtles have been in the waters offshore for months; what
prompts them to choose this exact night to lay their eggs - en
masse - is still largely a mystery. This is one of the wonders of
the natural world. All the more precious for a world in which there
aren't too many such wonders left.
Here's another mental picture - fast forward to February 2020.
The nesting beach is a thin shadow of its former self due to
erosion - perhaps in part due to the massive dredging required for
the Dhamra port?
The glow of the industrial township surrounding the port 10 km
to the northwest is clearly visible. The lights are not from the
port alone - there is also now a fertilizer factory, a coal fired
thermal power plant, ship building yard, steel factory, coking coal
plant and more.
All of these have been proposed, and are not just figments of
the imagination. What was once a sleepy fishing and farming village
is now a groaning, polluted and crowded industrial hub, adding to
GDP and corporate profits, no doubt. Turtles and other lesser
species be damned.
What we want
When the original environmental impact study turned out to have
holes big enough to drive a fleet of Nanos through, we asked for a
fresh, independent environmental impact study to be made, and for
construction to stop until that is done. Seems like a simple
demand, right?
But so far, we've hit a brick wall.
We've built a 103,000-strong cyberactivist community in India
on this issue. But the port hasn't stopped.
We've had people emailing, faxing and calling the Tatas on an
hourly basis. But the port hasn't stopped.
We've got 200 scientists (many with the International Union for
the Conservation of Nature) to speak up. But the port hasn't
stopped.
We've had over 1,500 blogs talk about this campaign. But the
port hasn't stopped.
We've had 98% of Tata's own customers tell us in a poll that the
port must stop. But the port hasn't stopped.
We've done half-a-dozen non-violent direct actions against the
Tatas. But the port hasn't stopped.
In India we've been attacked, stonewalled, maligned, hacked,
spammed, and accused of being in bed with everyone from Al Qaeda to
the Bee Gees. But the port hasn't stopped.
But guess what? We're not giving up.
What you can do
We're crowdsourcing this campaign! And you're part of the crowd
that is going to save those turtles.
You can help spread the word by taking your pick from a whole
bunch of exciting actions, and telling your friends about those
actions.
Take action
We need you and everyone you know to join the fight to save the turtles. You can take your pick from a range of actions here -- from a few mouseclicks to titanic turtle acts of heroism. Even sending this article to a few friends can help.
Donate
Greenpeace is only as strong as the support it gets. To help our fight to protect the Olive Ridleys, please consider becoming a financial supporter. We don't accept money from corporations, and we never will. That's why we can challenge TATA, and why we rely 100 percent on people like you to keep our urgent and necessary work alive.