By IANS
Mumbai : International environmental campaigner Greenpeace has raised serious concern over steel major Tata Steel's move to set up a mega port in Dhamra in Orissa's coastal Bhardrak district, saying it would be an "ecological blunder causing irreversible destruction" in the state's coastal areas.
The Dhamra port site is situated just five kilometres from the Bhitarkanika National Park, India's second largest mangrove forest and less than 15 kilometres from the Gahimatha Marine Sanctuary, the world's largest mass nesting ground for the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles.
Tata Steel and construction giant Larsen & Toubro are jointly promoting Dhamra port with an estimated cost of Rs.25 billion.
Concerned over the massive industrialisation planned for Orissa's coastal areas, Greenpeace had approached marine zoologists from North Orissa University to conduct a rapid biodiversity assessment of the area.
Addressing a news conference here Friday, Oceans Campaigner of Greenpeace Ashish Fernandes said: "A Greenpeace-commissioned study has unequivocally established that Tata Steel's port at Dhamra would be an ecological blunder causing irreversible destruction."
Releasing the report on the World Oceans Day, renowned turtle researcher S.K. Dutta said: "The finding shatters the theory that the offshore waters near Dhamra are a no-turtle zone. The water and the beach around the port site are breeding and feeding grounds for the turtles."
"Over the course of our study conducted between February and March this year, we have recorded over 2,000 dead turtles, victims of mechanised fishing on the port site and in the nearby areas like Kanika Sands, an island off the port site," said Dutta, principal investigator of the study.
The study also made two exciting discoveries on the port site itself.
It also reported the first sighting of the rare crab-eating frog on mainland India and the white-bellied mangrove snake, so far reported only once from the Sunderbans in the neighbouring West Bengal.
Fernandes said that the 13-berth mechanised port which when commissioned and handling 83 million tonnes of cargo per annum, mainly steel exports and iron ore imports to feed Tata's steel plants in Bihar and Jharkhand will also pose serious environmental hazards.
"Besides being the largest port on India's east coast with the ability to handle large vessels, the port will require dredging a 19-km-long shipping channel through the sea.
Pointing out alleged flaws in Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) prepared for the proposed port, the Greenpeace campaigner said that primary mistakes relate to poor baseline ecological data, a complete omission of the impact on turtles and other environmental impacts.
"To top it all, the EIA considers the port site that is completely different from the one being developed. The EIA considers the port site on Kanika Sands, whereas the site now being developed is on the mainland."
"Tata Steel has repeatedly asserted that there was no scientific evidence to suggest that the port would harm the turtles and if there was, they would not build the port," Fernandes said.
"We now call on Ratan Tata (Tata Group chairman) live up to the Tatas' reputation and his word to Greenpeace," he added.