Greenpeace asks TATAs to “Take a turtle-friendly look at life”

“We are here seeking insurance cover on behalf of the 500,000 turtles that congregate along the coast of Orissa every year. We want the Tatas to insure us against the risk of the Dhamra Port destroying our feeding and mating grounds. The Tata port poses an immediate danger to the very survival of our species as it threatens our most important habitat on the entire planet”, said Turtle Spokesperson Sachin Gupta.

Tata Steel’s proposed port is less than 15 km. from the world’s largest mass nesting site at Gahirmatha, where up to 500,000 turtles have been known to nest in a single year. Tata’s has always maintained that turtles are not found near the port site, and if evidence of their presence was recorded, they would reconsider the port. In March 2007, a study conducted by renowned herpetologist and member of the IUCN’s Amphibian Specialist Group Dr. S.K. Dutta unequivocally established the presence of turtles in the offshore waters near the port. (1) The study also recorded other rare species on the port site itself, which have been ignored in the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) done for the project. (2)

Greenpeace has been in touch with the Tatas since the release of the report but the points raised by the study have yet to be addressed.  Tata Steel has continued to claim publicly that the port will not impact turtles, though they have not been able to provide any evidence for this statement. Further, the company has chosen to ignore specific scientific concerns raised by Greenpeace, through the Critique of the Dhamra EIA report as well as the findings of the biodiversity assessment which Greenpeace had commissioned.

“The TATAs have said that if there is scientific evidence that the port will harm the turtles, they will withdraw from the port project. The March 2007 study puts the issue beyond doubt. We now call upon Ratan Tata to walk the talk and act with the integrity that JRD Tata and the other legends of the family would be proud of. Tata’s must act now to save the turtles, by withdrawing from the port project”, said Ashish Fernandes, Oceans Campaigner with Greenpeace India.