Mass Demise of Turtles Alongside the Orissa Sea Coast,

A reluctant Environmental State Governance

Kumar Deepak

(Environmentalist)

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…

From: nature drive nature.drive560@gmail.com

To: environ_deepak@yahoo.com 

Cc: environ.deepak@gmail.com 

Sent: Monday, December 17, 2012 4:17 PMSubject: 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 orincreased of acid level in the sea water. Whatever may the reasonbehind it, very embarrassing news for animal lovers.

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Report to the Department of Environment & Forest, OrissaI 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..

From: Kumar Deepak <environ_deepak@yahoo.com>To: "fesec@ori.nic.in" <fesec@ori.nic.in> Sent: Monday, December 17, 2012 7:11 PMSubject: 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 regardsKumar Deepak(Environmentalist)United Nations Development ProgrammeLodi-estateNew Delhi

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

Reported Spot of Deaths:

• Barunei sea beach,Near Gahirmatha

• Paradip sea beach • Astaranga sea beach • Chandrabhaga sea beach • Satapada ( Chilika lake )

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Joint inspection with Forest Range Officer and NDTI Coordinators

18 December 2012 ·  · Taken at Paradip Port OrissaOn 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.

Reluctant State Environmental GovernanceLack 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?

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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