The Hindu : Oil exploration near Olive Ridley turtle nesting sites causes concern

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 20, 2004

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Oil exploration near Olive Ridley turtle nesting sites causes concern

By Prafulla Das

BHUBANESWAR, MARCH 19. A controversy is brewing off the Orissa coast over oil exploration by the Reliance Industries Limited near the mass nesting sites of the Olive Ridley sea turtles.

Though RIL has obtained environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests for off-shore oil exploration at 13 places in the country, the Ministry has formed a nine-member multi-disciplinary experts committee to access the impact of drilling on the visiting turtles on the State's coast.

The committee is headed by the former Chief Wildlife Warden of Orissa, S.K. Patnaik.

The company will carry out exploratory drilling, one at NEC-25 which is 90 km off the Gahirmatha Sanctuary, and another at MD-10, which is around 65 km off the Rushikulya river mouth.

The committee members have visited the Rushikulya nesting site and held discussions with the officials of the Forest Department, Coast Guard and RIL.

Although, the committee is yet to submit its report, the wildlife lovers who are opposed to the RIL project for discovery of hydrocarbon say the oil exploration may cross the migratory path of the endangered Olive Ridleys. They are apprehensive that any leakage or blowouts from the drilling well can have disastrous effect on the turtles.

But, RIL officials say the drilling in the two exploratory blocks will be carried out at far-off places in the high sea and will pose no threat to the turtles. "A drilling ship of around 50 metre x 50 metre is too small in the vast ocean and cannot restrict their movement.''

More than 1 lakh Olive Ridleys have been killed by illegal fishing along the State's coast during the past 10 years. Orissa is one of the three mass nesting sites in the world hosting as much as 50 per cent of the world's Olive Ridley population.

The RIL officials say that companies such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Oil India drilled many exploratory wells since 1976 within the close proximity of Gahirmatha Sanctuary and there was no evidence of any adverse effect on the turtles.

In case of discovery of hydrocarbon, all measures would be taken to ensure that the project had no adverse impact on the sea turtles. Besides, the project would also have a substantial impact on the State's development, they said.

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