Olive Ridley Turtle Deaths in Masses around the various coastline of Orissa & Government's reluctance towards taking action to prevent such large scale brutal demise of turtles....

1. Mass Demise of Turtles
Alongside the Orissa Sea Coast,
A reluctant Environmental State Governance
Kumar Deepak
(Environmentalist)

2. Report Of Mass Death of Turtles
Mr. Raju from Nature Drive Trust of India, called on me in &
around 11 am on 17-12-2012 over my mobile…He intimated me that
there were over 500 turtles, found dead alongside the various
coast of Orissa…He himself found 100s of turtles dead over the
Paradip coast…
However he initially reported me about the death of Tortoises
because he himself was hardly able to distinguish between
tortoise or turtle, or may be confused…
I requested Mr. Raju to send some photographs over my email…
He sent me a text mail with photographs… The text message is
followed in the next slide…

3. From: nature drive nature.drive560@gmail.com
To: environ_deepak@yahoo.com
Cc: environ.deepak@gmail.com
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2012 4:17 PM
Subject: PHOTOS OF NDTI ( DEAD TORTOISES ) at Paradip Sea beach
Shocking news from Paradip Sea Beach, Odisha State (Bay of
Bengal). It was observed since last one week Hundreds of
Tortoises found dead at shore line. NDTI is planning to buried
the dead Tortoise in the sand at shore line on Wednesday to keep
the beach area clean & also send two of them to laboratory for
further investigation about the reason for such incidence. At the
1st sight it was not seems to be the result of fishing
activities, something looks like unhealthy water condition or
increased of acid level in the sea water. Whatever may the reason
behind it, very embarrassing news for animal lovers.
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12. Report to the Department of Environment &
Forest, Orissa
I immediately reported to the Respected High Officials to the
Department of Environment & Forest, Orissa through SMS… I
messaged
“look into the incidence of mass demise of tortoises seriously &
kindly send an expert team to investigate this matter…”
I messaged to the following respected officials…
 Principal Secretary, MoEF, Govt. of Orissa
 Director cum Special Secretary, MoEF, Govt. of Orissa
 Special Secretary, MoEF, Govt. of Orissa
Thereafter I sent a text email message to the Official site of
the Department of Environment & Forest, Orissa..

13. From: Kumar Deepak <environ_deepak@yahoo.com>
To: "fesec@ori.nic.in" <fesec@ori.nic.in>
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2012 7:11 PM
Subject: Fw: PHOTOS OF NDTI ( DEAD TORTOISES ) at Paradip Sea
beach
Dear Sir,
I have messaged to the Principal Secretary, Director
cum Spl Secretary, Special Secretary about the mass-deaths of
tortoise around the Paradeep Coast as per the report of a local
NGO Nature Drive Trust of India...
Kindly look into the matter & sent a team of expert to know the
what-about of this incident...
You may kindly call Mr. Raju,Nature Drive Trust of India
over 8908472772 in the Paradeep...
with kind regards
Kumar Deepak
(Environmentalist)
United Nations Development Programme
Lodi-estate
New Delhi

14. After registering my concern to the official mail of the DoEF, I
immediately forwarded the message to the NDTI email about my
detailed action right after the information about the Mass
Death…But when I was going through the photographs, I found that
they were Turtles…
Identified Turtles :
 Olive Ridley Turtles
 Leather Black Turtles

16. Reported Spot of Deaths:
• Barunei sea beach,Near Gahirmatha
• Paradip sea beach
• Astaranga sea beach
• Chandrabhaga sea beach
• Satapada ( Chilika lake )

17. Official Response:
In & around 7 pm, District Forest Officer Mr. Rajendra called on
my mobile & asked about the details of information…I have
messaged NDTI Representative Mobile number to him… Thereafter He
had a long talk to Mr. Raju, NDTI Representative over this turtle
issue…He ensured that he would visit the site…Meanwhile there was
a message over my mobile to call on a number which was sent by
the Principal Forest Conservator, Orissa Mr. J.D Sharma…
Mr. Rajendra made an oral speculations of death of just 25 to 50
turtles but he ensured of having proper inspection…He even
thanked me as well…
The Dramatic turn initiated in the morning… While I was working
out on 18-12-2012, there was a call on my number in & around 8pm…
I received the call… The gentleman calling was the Principal
Conservator of the Forest, Govt. of Orissa… He was talking or
more like cracking in a loud sound & blaming me of disseminating
rumors about the mass death of turtles…

18. He was talking like a monarch not like a bureaucrat… He was more
in a mood to kill me through threats, warn & unsound talk… He was
talking like a moron who had no interest in hearing out the
information about the mass demise of turtles rather he was
countering & questioning me about my authority to retrospect such
subject of wider wildlife significance… I let him leave to speak
for a minute or two… He even threatened me to inform my office
about my misconduct & irresponsible action of sending SMSs & mail
to the top officials & the DoEF of the State respectively without
having prior visit at the site where such turtles were found dead
in masses…
I immediately responded him that I have an assigned right as a
normal citizen to protect & conserve our ecosystem… I just made a
request to inspect whether such reports were true or a rumor…
When I said that I had sent some photographs as well, he
immediately countered me by saying that photographs might had
been taken out at other sites other than aforementioned areas… He
said me to provide fare to arrive in Orissa… I immediately
responded that it’s now your turn to inspect & if it was found
true, need some proper investigation & postmortem of the Dead
turtles to reach at the conclusion in an advance laboratory…

19. He was totally in an off mood or looking scared of me so why he
was talking in loud voice to hijack the truth… I showed my firm
stand by reminding him if this was a rumor, its your
responsibility to eliminate it out… I didn’t bring this issue to
the media… I directly requested the assigned authority to inspect
whether this report of mass death of turtles reside truths or
rumor… I even assured him of my full support to the State
authority whenever they need me, I would come to join them…
Anyhow he ensured me to send a team there at the incident spot
around the various coast… He asked me the details of NDTI &
thereafter I furnished him Mr. Raju’s Contact Number… He had a
long talk to him as well… According to Mr. Raju, Mr. J.D Sharma
had ensured him of sending a team to visit out the spot…
I was astonished by the way a Bureaucrat was talking to me… I
have lot of my friends in Indian Civil Services & Indian Forest
Services but despite of whether they are very senior or of my
age, never talked me the way Mr. Sharma had spoken…
I reached at a conclusion that he was more eager to know whether
my official team had already visited the site or not & when he
came to know the fact he started sounding well…

20. As per the insurance, A Team had visited the Paradip coast site
to do the formality of burying out to dispose out the body of
dead turtles… The NDTI Members reached at the spot of inspection
& found that there was no high official in the team… They are
simple rangers who had been ordered to hide the evidence by
burying out the dead species defending their operation on the
ground of offering immunity to the rest of the coastal
biodiversity in particular to the turtles against any further
infection… So they buried about 100 of turtles at the Paradip
coast alone but they didn’t visit the other site where such mass
demise were being reported…
While talking to one of the ranger over mobile, he denied of such
deaths were either by infection or by any hazardous chemical… He
mentioned that the entire Coast of Orissa were of steep slope &
during high tide, such incidences often happen… Such spineless &
toothless explanation stunned me… I was amazed by the way an in-
expertise ranger had been denying such mass death of turtles
without going through any postmortem or laboratory report…
They buried out the dead remains of turtles on that day…

21. Next Day, the officials under pressure of local NGO in particular
to NDTI ensured to carry out the dead body of the turtle for the
further postmortem & its proper laboratory analysis… but even
after over 25 days, no medical report as such has either been
handed over to the NDTI representative or the media…
There were reports of repeated incidences of such brutal mass
demise of the world most popular Ridley Olive Turtles were coming
on 02-01-2013… No further inspection or visit either, by any of
the official or normal wildlife employee…
However NDTI, a local NGO has still been pressurizing the high
officials through tendering its push to either electronic media
support or print media assistance but the dumb & deaf paralyzed
bureaucracy has almost set aside this issue of greater
biodiversity importance…Its been the strict violation of United
Nations Convention on Biological Diversity…

22. Joint inspection with Forest Range Officer and NDTI
Coordinators
18 December 2012 · ·
Taken at Paradip Port Orissa
On date 18-12-2012 a joint inspection was held at Paradip Sea
beach with a Forest Range Officer and his team and our NDTI
Coordinators. On 25 Meters we have buried 20 Turtles together
with Forest Department staffs. We made the point that the cause
of large scale animal death must be investigated by the Forest
Department before we blame any party for this disaster. Now we
have to bury the dead Turtles to prevent a possible infection of
others, so our work will continue for some days.

29. Reluctant State Environmental Governance
Lack of Ecological Moral Understandings
I am very much disappointed by the way the Department of
Environment & Forest, Orissa has so far conducted the whole
exercise of hiding & hijacking the existence evidence… They are
exercising to suppress the information by the mis-use of the
Government Machinery… The State Principal Forest Conservator has
no idea of Rumor & Risk Management… He tries to misuse his
assigned responsibility by suppressing the informants rather than
appreciating the Environmental servants… I am still unable to
understand how such officer understands himself above than law &
constitution of India…
Why the DoEF has still been failed so far to produce the
laboratory report to trace out the reason of such mass-scale
death disaster of turtles?
Why such officers are not working under the assigned norms of
Wildlife Protection laws & International Convention on Biological
Diversity?
Does a common man not raise his/her voice against such issue of
wider ecological significance?

30. I appreciate Nature Drive Trust of India efforts towards raising
& fighting out against such significant issues of greater
Ecological biodiversity conservation & protection… Such efforts
would bring wider civic awareness towards conserving the diverse
ecological species through strengthening the Human & Ecosystem
relationship…
The Bureaucrats should understand the Economics of Ecosystem &
Biodiversity through carrying forward their moral responsibility
towards conserving our ecological rich biodiversity….
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