Three turtle carcasses lay on white sheets, surrounded by the
sun-bleached bones and skulls of several others. Two large banners,
in English and in Hindi, make it quite clear to passers-by that the
Chief Accused for the death of the Olive Ridleys in Orissa is none
other than the Chief Minister of the State.
How much evidence do you need?
We've camped at Orissa for four months at the Turtle Witness
Camp, bearing witness to thousands of dead turtles washed ashore
this season. We've seen, up close and personal, the maggot-infested
carcasses of turtles, pregnant female turtles lying dead with their
precious hoard of eggs laid open to predators and adult male
turtles lying forlornly on shores that they usually never return to
once they've left as hatchlings.
We've gone to the Chief Wildlife Warden, and recreated a
graveyard at his doorstep, asking him what he has done to prevent
these deaths. Surprisingly, he responded by saying that his
department had neither the expertise nor the infrastructure
required to adequately protect the turtles.
We've even put together the "I Witness Report" , personal
testimonies by the many people who have visited our Turtle Witness
Camp, interlaced with the shocking results of the monitoring and
documentation we've carried out over the last few months.
Raising a stink.
Remember the scene from The Point Of No Return where Maggie
stands over a human body dissolving in an acid bath and,
unflinching, mutters "I never did mind about the little
things."
That scene was re-enacted this morning.
If facts and figures don't rattle a Chief Minister, Greenpeace
figured, perhaps the sight and smell of Olive Ridley turtles in
various stages of decomposition would. For once, we were proven
wrong. Naveen Patnaik was able to smile suavely at cameras, neatly
sidestep both the carcasses and the uncomfortable questions posed
by our activists, and mouth platitudes like, "The turtles are the
pride of Orissa and over the past few years, we have sensitised the
local community towards the need to protect them."
Unmentionable is the fact that it takes something more than a
sensitised community to defend the turtles. Something like spending
the Rs.1 Crore (Rupees ten million) that Naveen Patnaik's
government received towards actually protecting the turtles .
"It's time the Chief Minister woke up to the urgency of the
situation. He can no longer evade his responsibility for the annual
turtle genocide in Orissa," said Ashish Fernandes, Oceans
Campaigner, Greenpeace India. "The evidence is before us - the
state's failure to protect this endangered species could well
result in the total collapse of the turtle population. He needs to
take action, and do so now!"
Three Greenpeace activists booked under Wildlife Protection Act.
Of the 12 Greenpeace activists arrested at this morning's action
outside the residence of Orissa Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik,
three have been booked under the Wildlife Protection Act, and will
be held overnight at the Tughlaq Road Police Station. Activists
have been accused of violating the Wildlife Protection Act by
transporting carcasses of Olive Ridley turtles from Orissa to
Delhi, while, as they pointed out, those responsible for the deaths
of these turtles are allowed to go scot free.
Greenpeace reacts strongly to the decision to book environmental
activists under an act meant to protect the very interests that
motivated the activists to confront the Chief Minister today.
"Given that the Chief Minister has abdicated his responsibility
to protect the endangered Olive Ridley Turtles, we consider him to
be in violation of the Wildlife Protection Act," said Ashish
Fernandes. "It is shocking that officials of the law choose to
prosecute those who take action to uphold the law, instead of those
who flagrantly violate it, or those abusing their positions of
responsibility."
Over 100,000 Olive Ridley turtles have died in the last one
decade in Orissa, and as Greenpeace has pointed out, this is
particularly ironical at a time when the United Nations marks 2006
as the International Year of the Turtle.
If you would like to report on the action, click
here to read the press release.
For high-resolution images and broadcast quality footage from
the action, please contact:
Namrata Chowdhary, Media Officer, Greenpeace India: +91 98108
50092 or
Sanjiv Gopal, Oceans Campaigner, Greenpeace India: +91 98455
35416