India: Illegal sand dredging threatens wildlife
Posted on Nov 2nd
The nesting beaches of famous Olive Ridley sea turtles on the Orissa coast have eroded due to illegal sand dredging carried out by a major private steel company near the mouth of Mahanadi river.

Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) Secretary Biswajit Mohanty alleged that the Essar Steel Orissa Ltd (ESOL), which is proposed to set up a six MTPA steel pellet factory at Paradip along with a 225MW captive power plant, has destroyed the nesting areas of the Olive Ridley, a schedule I species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, by its dredging activities.

Mr Mohanty said the state government has allowed the world’s largest sea turtle nesting site to be destroyed and demanded the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to immediately keep in abeyance the environmental clearance granted to the company in May 2008.

The WSO secretary said the company should be asked to stop work till the completion of the enquiry into violations of CRZ rules, Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and the Environment Protection Act, 1986 and the Wildlife (Protection) Act,1972.

The company, he further said, should be ordered to refill the sand which had been illegally dredged from river Mahanadi so that the turtle nesting beaches of Gahirmatha could be restored.

The MoEF, Mr Mohanty said, should also prosecute the officers who have failed to enforce the CRZ regulations and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 provisions.

He said as per local reports, at least 12,00,000 c mt of sand has been dredged from the river. Two dredgers were engaged by the Company to excavate sand from Mahanadi to fill up the site.

As the ocean currents flow for eight months of year in a northward direction, such sediment load flushed out from the Mahanadi mouth is deposited on the shores of the marine sanctuary which lies to north of the river mouth.

These soft sediment beaches are prime turtle nesting areas.

However, for the last two years, there has been an unprecedented erosion of the coastline, north of river Mahanadi, Ekakula Pentha and Agarnasi areas all known sea turtle mass nesting sites.