Sethusamudram canal may disturb endangered turtles: expert

ORISSA: The Sethusamudram shipping canal project off Tamil Nadu may disturb thousands of endangered Olive Ridley turtles that come every winter to Orissa for mass nesting.

There is both support and opposition to the construction of a canal in the sea dividing India and Sri Lanka. The project will enable vessels to save time taken to circumnavigate Sri Lanka while sailing between India's west and east.

Turtle lovers and marine scientists have raised objections to the project, fearing it would change the migratory path of Olive Ridley sea turtles towards the Orissa coast and endanger their lives.

"The project would hamper the annual migration of Olive Ridley turtles towards Gahiramatha and other beaches of Orissa," noted environmentalist Arati Sridhar said.

Gahiramatha is the world's largest rookery of the sea turtles. It is located in Kendrapada district.

"The movement of the turtles would be affected by passage of ships and other big vessels in the Palk Strait," she said. Palk Strait is the narrow sea dividing India and Sri Lanka.

Sridhar and four other scientists and environmentalists recently completed a comprehensive report on the environmental and economic impact of the project and concluded that since time immemorial turtles have used the Palk Strait route to reach the Orissa coast for laying eggs.

"The Sethusamudram site is located in a globally significant marine ecosystem including the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve, one of the world's richest marine biological resources. Olive Ridley sea turtles are found in significant numbers there, and these areas act as important feeding grounds for the marine species," Sridhar said.

The proposed canal has the potential to have very significant consequences on some of the most important marine biodiversity areas of mainland India. The Gulf of Mannar and Palk Strait regions have some of India's richest coral reef ecosystems and are also home to some of the most extensive and diverse sea-grass meadows in the country, she said.

Apart from being ecosystems of high productivity and diversity, they protect coastal systems and serve as nursery grounds for fish stocks that sustain local fishing communities, she said.

Palk Strait is considered to be one of the biggest sediment sinks along with the east coast. In order to keep the canal open, a certain level of dredging will have to be maintained through the operating life of the canal.

These activities would hamper the movement of turtles towards Orissa, Sridhar insisted.

"Earlier, it was proved through satellite transmitters fitted on the back of the turtles in Orissa four years back that the Olive Ridley has been using Palk Strait, Gulf of Mannar and the sea near Sri Lanka to reach Orissa," said turtle expert Biswajit Mohanty.

"There is every chance that the marine species may change their nesting sites after the completion of the project," said Mohanty, the coordinator of Operation Kachhapa, a turtle conservation group.