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Wrangles over proposed Dharma port
01 Jul 2007
Indian steel manufacturing giant Tata has stoutly defended its plans for a new steel and ore port at Dhamra, in the eastern Indian province of Orissa, in the face of environmental protests.
Eco-campaign organisation Greenpeace claims the port’s development would be an ecological blunder causing irreversible destruction because its proposed site is just 5 km from the Bhitarkanika National Park, India’s second largest mangrove forest, and less than 15 km from the Gahimatha Marine Sanctuary, the world’s largest mass nesting ground for endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles.
But Tata spokesman Prabhat Sharma said an environmental study for the port had looked carefully at the turtle issue. “It is not true to say the process of environment clearance did not examine the turtle issue. The area where the port is proposed is in a no nesting zone, as found by the Wildlife Institute of India.” He said the WII report had been corroborated by the Orissa government and its chief wildlife warden.
