India update: Tata uncontrite
Published by MAC on 2007-08-31
India update: Tata uncontrite
31st August 2007
Tata Steel has announced that it will start construction of its Kalinganagar steel plant in Orissa within the next two months. This is despite a peoples' blockade against the project which has been sustained since just after the "Kalkinganagar massacre" in January 2006 - an event in which Tata's involvement (or at least its mute complicity) has never been acknowledged by the company, let alone an apology offered.
Meanwhile Tata shows no signs of heeding predictions that its planned construction of a deep-water a port on Orissa's east coast poses a dire threat, not only to a rare breed of turtles, but also fisherpeople and the marine environment as a whole.
Tata Steel to start Orissa construction in November.
Metal Bulletin, Mumbai.
31st August 2007
Tata Steel will start construction of its 6 million tpy steel plant at Kalinganagar in the Eastern Indian state of Orissa by November, according to Tata Steel managing director B Muthuraman.
"We have asked the Orissa government for allotment of iron ore mines," Muthuraman told reporters in Bhubaneshwar, the capital of Orissa after meeting the state's chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
A Tata Steel spokesman said the company had already rehabilitated 620 of the 1,200 families which have been displaced by the project at Kalinganagar.
According to the spokesman, Muthuraman further said the company has placed orders for equipment worth $1.1 billion.
Tata steel is hoping to reach the target of rehabilitating at least 700 of the affected families before starting any construction work.
Tata Steel had in November 2004 signed a memorandum of understanding for setting up a 6 million tpy integrated steel plant in Kalinganagar Industrial Complex at Duburi in Jajpur district of Orissa.
The project is expected to be built in two phases each of 3 million tpy. The the first phase is scheduled to be commissioned in 2008. Locals who have lost their land to the project have put up strong opposition and twelve people were killed when police opened fire on protesters in January 2006.
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Stop Port Construction; Save Ridley Sea Turtles / India
GLOBAL RESPONSE ACTION ALERT # 3/07
31st August 2007
Also available at: www.globalresponse.org
For a model letter, see http://www.globalresponse.org/gra.php?i=current
"If TATA Steel goes ahead with the project at the proposed site, the port would not only seal the fate of the Olive Ridley sea turtles of Orissa but also pave the way for one of the biggest ecological disasters along the eastern coast of India….As sea turtles are migratory creatures, we feel that the entire world should be concerned over this looming threat and the failure of Indian authorities to safeguard their breeding and nesting grounds."
--Biswajit Mohanty, Coordinator of Operation Kachhapa, Orissa, India
The Olive Ridley sea turtle offers one of nature's greatest spectacles. Each year, Olive Ridleys return from their inter-oceanic migrations to the beaches where they were hatched. Hundreds of thousands congregate and mate in the offshore waters. Then, as if on cue, the females lumber ashore to lay their eggs. Their arrival -- tens of thousands on a given beach -- is heralded by the Spanish term for this remarkable event, the arribada.
Arribadas occur in only three locations worldwide. One of the largest is on the coast of Orissa state in India. To protect the endangered sea turtles, the Gahirmatha coast is designated a Marine Sanctuary. The Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary, a Ramsar wetland site, offers further protection for a mangrove forest ecosystem, which is a nursery for a wealth of marine life. The Olive Ridleys depend on the fertility of the mangrove ecosystem for food each year when they congregate for mating and the arribada.
How is it possible that the Orissa state government is permitting construction of a massive deep-water industrial port less than 15 kilometers from the Olive Ridleys' nesting beaches? If completed, the Dhamra port will be one of the largest in South Asia, with 17-kilometer channels dredged deep and wide enough to accommodate the world's largest vessels. Environmental organizations and local fishermen's unions are asking the international community to help them stop construction of the Dhamra Port at this location where its impacts on the sea turtles could spell extinction and its impacts on local fishermen could spell ruin.
Threats to Turtles and Fishing Communities
Sea turtle hatchlings break out of their sandy nests at night and must quickly find their way to the sea. They move across the sand toward the brighter horizon, the moon- and star-lit ocean. Artificial light from ports and populated areas disorients the hatchlings and they may never reach the sea. Artificial light also disorients the nesting females. In fact, Operation Kachhapa, a sea turtle conservation organization, charges that illumination from a mega-port at Dhamra could cause the Olive Ridleys to abandon the Orissa beaches entirely. And go where?
Dredging for the port's ship channels and construction of a 750-meter jetty will change sedimentation patterns, and these will affect the shape, dimensions, sand grain size and vegetation of the nesting beaches. These disturbances may also inhibit nesting.
Pollution, oil spills and ballast water discharged from the giant cargo ships would contaminate the nearby mangrove ecosystem, affecting the entire marine food chain. Local fishermen, whose livelihoods depend on the health of these fish breeding and spawning grounds, have joined the fight against the Dhamra port. K. Allaya, General Secretary of the Orissa Traditional Fishworkers' Union, charges, "The Dhamra Port Project has ignored the basic livelihood needs of local communities, taking away their land, their fishing grounds and the productivity of the sea on which thousands depend."
The port project's Environmental Impact Assessment was done in 1997, but environmental organizations charge that it lacks any analysis of impacts on turtles and port site ecology.
Corporate Responsibility
TATA Steel, a very influential company in India, is building the Dhamra Port in a joint venture with the engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro. Although TATA originally maintained that they would reconsider the port site if it is established that Olive Ridleys are present in the area, they have ignored the findings of a team from North Orissa University that unequivocally established the presence of turtles in the area. As evidence, the research team recorded over 2,000 fresh turtle carcasses at and near the port site. Adding to the area's ecological significance, they also found several rare species, among them horseshoe crabs, snakes and frogs seldom found on the Indian mainland.
As a member of the U.N.'s Global Compact for Corporate Responsibility, TATA Steel is pledged to the Precautionary Principle. With the survival of rare and ancient species hanging in the balance, this is a time to practice precaution.
How We Can Help:
Environmental organizations and fishing unions in Orissa urge us to help them stop construction of the Dhamra port by sending letters to TATA Steel and Orissa government officials. In your letters, please
a.. Express your appreciation for the establishment of protected areas along the Orissa coast, including the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary and the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary, which are critical to the survival of the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtle and a wealth of marine life.
b.. Urge the Orissa government to continue to protect this ancient and endangered species and preserve the livelihoods of local fishing communities by revoking its approval for the Dhamra port.
c.. Urge TATA Steel to apply the Precautionary Principle as required by the Global Compact and to uphold its reputation for environmental responsibility by relocating its port facility to a site where it will not threaten endangered species, critical ecosystems and fishermen's livelihoods.
A model letter is available here.
Addresses:
Mr. Ratan Tata
Chairman, TATA Sons
Bombay House
24, Homy Modi Street
Bombay: 400001 INDIA
Fax: Int'l Code + 91 22 6665 7724
Email: cooffice@tata.com
Mr. Shri Naveen Patanaik
Chief Minister, Orissa
Naveen Nivas,
Aerodrome Gate,
P.O.-Bhubaneswar-751001
Dist.-Khurda (Orissa) INDIA
Fax: Int'l Code + 91 67 4259 0833
Email: cmo@ori.nic.in
This Global Response Action was issued at the request of and with information provided Operation Kachhapa ( www.wpsi-india.org/projects/operation_kachhapa.php), the Orissa Traditional Fishworker's Union (OTFWU); Greenpeace India ( www.greenpeace.org/india/); and the WILD Foundation (www.wild.org ). For Greenpeace's critique of the Dhamra port EIA, see www.greenpeace.org/india/press/reports/critique-of-the-environmental. For more on the U.N.'s Global Compact, see www.unglobalcompact.org/ and on the Precautionary Principle, see www.iucn.org/themes/law/pdfdocuments/LN250507_PPGuidelines.pdf and www.precaution.org/lib/pp_def.htm .
*Thanks to Bivash Pandav for the Ridley Turtle Photos and to Erin King for the India Map Graphic
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Paula Palmer, Executive Director
Global Response
PO Box 7490
Boulder CO 80306 USA
Tel +303/444-0306