No port forte turtles..

"Could you piss in a bottle of mineral water, and simultaneously test it for quality?"questioned a conservationist, before he—and other leading conservationists of the country, walked out of a meeting on Friday, February 20, at the TATA Steel office with the top officials of Dhamra Port, TATA Steel and L&T who are both partners in the project. "That was in protest over their refusal to consider any suspension of dredging operations pending an independent assessment of the environmental impacts of the upcoming Dhamra port in Orissa," says adman Prahlad Kakar, who also is part of Mumbai-based organisation, Reefwatch. "They refused to even suspend construction, or at the very least, the dredging for the current two months, which is turtle mating and nesting season," adds Kakkar.
The port has long been a source of controversy given its proximity to the Gahirmatha mass nesting beaches and the Bhitarkanika National Park. Gahirmatha is one of the world's largest mass nesting beaches for the olive ridley sea turtle, a species protected under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act.
"There is no point in agreeing to an assessment while simultaneously carrying out large scale habitat alteration activities such as dredging," says Bittu Sahgal, editor Sanctuary Asia. There has been absolutely no assessment of what impact this might have on the marine food web or the erosion and sedimentation patterns nearby, including on the nesting beaches of Gahirmatha. "That's why we were asking TATA to suspend the dredging operations pending the assessment, but their absolute refusal to negotiate makes one wonder if they do have environmental interests at heart," added Ashish Feranendes of Greenpeace. Conservationists point out that Gahirmatha has not seen the arribada or the mass nesting since construction at the Dhamra port site commenced, and do not rule out the possible influence of dredging in the area, which has been going on night and day, even in the critical turtle breeding and nesting season. Those present at the meeting included representatives from Wildlife Protection Society of India, Conservation Action Trust, Wildlife Protection Society of Orissa, Sanctuary Asia, Reefwatch and Greenpeace, while the port was well-represented by top officials from Dhamra, TATA and L & T. However, the latter refused to comment on the issue inspite of repeated efforts.
Earlier in the dialogue process, conservationists led by Greenpeace had presented TATA with the Terms of Reference and scope of an independent and comprehensive environmental assessment of the port and its potential impacts, pointing out that the existing Environmental Impact Assessment has glaring loopholes and that the scope of the project had changed since then. While TATA had in principle agreed to commissioning a new assessment, there were disagreements on the scope and most crucially on the need to suspend elements of construction, particularly dredging, while the study was conducted.
Turtle expert Dr Bivash Pandav explains that enough damage has been done to Gahirmatha by constructing the missile test range right besides the world's largest sea turtle rookery. "And now whatever left is left will be destroyed by this port. This port at Dhamra is the final nail in the coffin for the turtles of Gahirmatha. Turtles in Orissa for sure are following the path of passenger pigeon." However, this grim prophecy is of little consequence to the project proponents, who have already finished with nearly 30 per cent of the port, and is proposed to be completed by 2010.
And the turtles? They are here, tens of thousands of them, just off the coast of Gahirmatha, following a ritual as ancient as time, to nest, and breed, in the same beach as they have done since millennia…unaware that their fate is all but sealed in the cold boardrooms of 'development' without a conscience.