The Hindu Business Line : Saving turtles on port agenda

The Dhamra port project in Orissa has attracted considerable attention due to its proximity to the vulnerable Olive Ridley nesting grounds. At a workshop held by International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) at Bhubaneswar recently, the Government officials, private developers, environmentalists and others debated the issue threadbare. It was revealed that fishing trawlers, and not the construction of the port, posed the most serious threat to turtle population in t he area. The trawlers would often inadvertently trap and kill the turtles in nets. This could be prevented by the use of turtle excluder devices on the nets. Several major mitigation recommendations of IUCN are being implemented by Dhamra Port Company Limited, which is a joint venture between Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro, including use of turtle protective deflectors on dredgers and lighting techniques to reduce sky glow that can confuse newborn turtles as they make their way from the beach to the sea. It was felt that Dhamra should enter into a dialogue with other ports and development agencies active in the area on how they could come up with a solution for a far-reaching and far-greater impact on coastal habitat and biodiversity and not just on turtles.

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