Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Save the Turtles... Mr.Tata!!!

The beaches of Orissa, India provide one of the last nesting grounds of the Olive Ridley Turtles in the world and the port construction by Tata's is going to destroy it forever.

Below is the latest campaign from Greenpeace(Click on the below picture to enlarge):


If you want to support Greenpeace by donating, please click here.

25 comments:

Elio Milay said...

I came here thanks to a pic by "Buzz" Aldrin footprint on moon surface, from a 2007 post in your blog. I see you're a very kind and compassionate human being. I will follow your posts. Let`s be friends.

Thak you very much and many greetings from the north of Spain, friend Bharani.

http://blue-spirits.blogspot.com

- said...

One more Entrepreneur’s dream coming true at the cost of innocent lives. I don't know where our dream especially those associated with the business take us.

Unknown said...

Mamu it's a very nice message.

Anonymous said...

dunno where uninformed millitant activism take us too

Anonymous said...

dunno where uninformed millitant activism take us too

Unknown said...

i agree

especially when people don't know the whole truth

in any case these greenpeace kind of agencies take away credit from groups who are actually doing some great work

Anonymous said...

Recently came across exciting news about Record Mass Nesting of Olive Ridley turtles in Gahirmatha beach this year inspite of Dhamra Port construction…

http://www.sakaaltimes.com/2009/03/25131926/Annual-rendezvous-of-Olive-Rid.html

http://www.eco-dhamra.com/mass-turtles-nesting.html

Unknown said...

Spare a thought for all the people who are waiting for the port to be completed so that they don’t have to travel for livelihood opportunities. . It might be a petty issue for a fistful but has an enormous affect on the lives of a lot of people.

Anonymous said...

One of the biggest disappointments as an NGO is Greenpeace.
But it sure knows how to draw attention to issues that they somehow manage to blow out of proportion.

Anup Mohanta said...

The Dhamra Project has all about economic growth in Orissa, something that should’ve commenced a long time ago. As fas as the Olive Ridley turtles, the port is being built about 25 kms away. So it in no way a risk to them.

Anonymous said...

I dont Know whether the people are aware of the complete truth and the role of Greenpeace in creating complications in the matter.

See this:

http://www.aamaraodisha.com/

http://www.eco-dhamra.com/photogallery.html

Anonymous said...

http://www.eco-dhamra.com/photogallery.html

A friend sent me the nesting photos,I hope people of greenpeace also see and believe them.

Anonymous said...

Greenpeace needs to check a lot facts before pointing fingers

Anonymous said...

Greenpeace seems to forget that they are human beings themselves or else they would have negotiated and come to a reasonable solution by now.

Anonymous said...

Man people are sure upset with Greenpeace.

Anonymous said...

Is anybody hearing us....

Kavita said...

I believe in life everything needs to be in balance. In case of Dhamra, we should take preventive action to save the endangered ridley turtles. But at the same time we need the economic development of Dhamra as well. In my opinion, the primarily source of earning for Dhamra people is marine fishing which is a major threat to Olive Ridley Turtles.

Dhamra port project will provide alternate livelihood opportunity to Dhamra people, which will be a roadmap to sustainable development of Orissa.

Mandakini said...

Enjoy this funny video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uCWK9ube1k

Anonymous said...

"Greenpeace has been variously criticized for being too radical, too alarmist, or too mainstream, for using methods bordering on eco-terrorism, for having itself caused environmental damage in its activities, for taking positions which are not environmentally or economically sound, and for valuing non-human causes over human causes. These criticisms have been made by governments, industrial and political lobbyists and other environmental groups."

Greenpeace Lies About Apple
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/E83D58B3-10E0-4A9C-8847-BCE665EE235C.html

Greenpeace Lies About Dhamra Port
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r39coHPJKdU

Is that like Greenpeace always targets big corporate giant to keep them under pressure and earn money from them ultimately?

I wonder why a non-governmental organization for the protection and conservation of the environment do not like to protect the human beings. I have found in few countries innocent & poor people require protections, importance more than animals.

Why they have been kept ignored and leave behind by this type of so called good organizations.

GREENPEACE HAS NO RIGHT TO CREATE OBSTACLES FOR THE ECONOMICAL & INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF ANY OTHER COUNTRY.

Aakash said...

Light and lighting are crucial for any industrial project, both during construction and the operational phase. IUCN lighting experts and DPCL are also taking care of implementing lighting safeguards, which would also be turtle safe lighting and would be low pressure sodium vapor lights which have been proven by research to be the least disorienting to turtle hatchlings.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=296928&id=168851070709

Anonymous said...

"Expressing anguish over the Green Peace movement's single point agenda on stopping work on Dhamra Port project in Orissa, Tata Steel Chairman Ratan Tata reiterated that the company would in no way take up any project hazardous to Olive Ridley Turtles"

Mr Ratan Tata Chairman of TATA Steel to Greenpeace activists: "I invite you for a discussion and a visit to the port site in Dhamra."

Tata proved that Tata was always willing to have a best solution for country's industrial & economical development and they were always ready for solutions.

http://steelguru.com/news/index/2009/08/29/MTA5MDgw/TATA_Steel_invites_Greenpeace_activists_for_talks_on_Dhamra_Port.html

http://www.indopia.in/India-usa-uk-news/latest-news/661058/Business/4/20/4

http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-100917.html

Unknown said...

Greenpeace, the professed global environment campaign organization, in an instance of unmatched brazenness, falsified the report prepared by North Orissa University on Biodiversity Assessment of Dhamra Estuary. As a result, a group of forty MPs wrote to the Ministry Of Environment and Forests to call on the bluff of Greenpeace. The Orissa Govt. therefore initiated action against Greenpeace proposing a ban on all its activities in the state.

However, after the 102nd Annual General Meeting of Tata Steel in Mumbai, Greenpeace unabashedly has started their tricks once again. This time it has managed to rope in Retd Admiral Ramdas and his wife Mrs. Lalita Ramdas on the issue of Dhamra port but as far as scientific reasoning goes, the issues raised are totally unfounded. We can just hope that the visit of the Ramdas’ to the site will help to stop meaningless agitations and clear the situation once and for all.

Unknown said...

Tata Steel has always maintained a strong focus on environment sustainability and environment management in all its operations. We have seen that in the issues regarding the construction of a deep-sea port at Dhamra in Orissa, the Company has been forthcoming in sharing the concerns of activists and ever willing to implement practical means of mitigating any adverse impact of port construction on the marine eco-system in that area. The Company has held at least eight to nine sessions of meetings with Greenpeace and other environmental organizations in the matter of Dhamra Port. Tata Steel has made it abundantly clear that it is willing to have further discussions in order to alleviate any unnecessary doubts that the dissenters may yet nurture against the project.

Here is an outline of events as they happened till date.

The JV agreement with L&T to build a port at Dhamra was signed by Tata Steel in 2004. At the very onset, discussions were initiated with WWF- India, BNHS, Mr Kartik Shankar, Mr Bittu Sehagal and others.

The company was duly concerned with the objections raised by different environmental organizations and agreed not to begin construction work till a detailed study was complete. Responding wholeheartedly to the demands of activists, Tata Steel agreed for a proposal for a further study of the impact of the port on turtles and on the marine and island eco-system.

In 2005, BNHS and WWF-India, with an unprecedented suddenness, reversed their stand and refused to conduct the assessment study as they had promised. However, the organisations did not provide any reasons for their turncoat attitude.

In March 06, in an address to ED, Greenpeace India, the Chairman of TATA Sons made it clear that commitments were meant to be honoured at both ends. The Company had fulfilled their promise by withholding construction work for the proposed study, which never actually took off. The MD of Tata Steel also met Greenpeace officials in their Bangalore office.

In January 2008 a meeting was subsequently conducted between Greenpeace and Tata Steel and a list of concerns was presented by Greenpeace with regard to Dhamra Port. DPCL on 8th March 2008, gave a detailed and comprehensive explanation to all the points raised by Greenpeace. Subsequent objections were allayed on 3rd May 2008.

Further on 23rd October 2008, MD, Tata Steel along with senior executives of Tata Steel, L&T and DPCL met Greenpeace, BNHS, WPSI, Wild Society of Orissa, Sanctuary Asia and other environmental organizations to discuss the concerns and the way forward on the subject with regard to Dhamra Port.

A team of Company Executives and environment experts visited Bhitarakanika National Park, Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary and the Dhamra Port site on February 2009, supervising the ongoing dredging operations.

Unknown said...

On fourth meeting on 20th Feb 2009 in Kolkata, Tata Steel, L&T and DPCL agreed to conduct the additional biological impact assessment in close collaboration with NGOs’ of environmental organizations team led by a mutually agreed upon Scientists team. However the NGOs’ in a further instance of unreasonableness, insisted upon complete cessation of on-going dredging operation of Dhamra Port even before the commencement of study. However DPCL, Tata Steel and L&T team showed it preparedness to adjust the schedule of works including dredging to facilitate the study after due recommendation by the Scientists team.

The 102nd AGM of Tata Steel had been attended by a number of Greenpeace activists who happen to be shareholders of the Company as well. The AGM highlighted Tata Steel’s interests in further conference with Greenpeace in the matter of the port in addition to an invitation to activists to visit the port site yet again.

From the sequence of events, it is absolutely clear that the only thing that Greenpeace wants is to prolong the situation of deadlock in the matter of Dhamra Port. Perhaps, due to a lack of other valid issues on their agenda, Greenpeace is carrying on with a stance of stiffness, lest they have to give in to valid scientific reasoning. The only deduction that may be drawn from Greenpeace’s lack of willingness in discussion is that they have lost their own conviction long before and fear that they will have to admit it as such in an open forum. It is indeed a very sorry state of affairs in which progress is kept at stake and the environment is being used as a pawn by people who profess themselves to be friends of the environment.

Anonymous said...

At least 170,000 endangered female Olive Ridley turtles have laid their eggs in the protected Gahirmatha sanctuary, a famed nesting site in coastal Orissa, during the past 11 days.
http://www.topnews.in/law/170000-olive-ridley-turtles-lay-eggs-orissas-gahirmatha-210813