Greenpeace says Indian port killing rare turtles

MUMBAI (Agencies): A port being built on India's eastern coast is a "killing field" of rare Olive Ridley turtles and other marine life, and should be shut down, Greenpeace said on Friday.

It said the Dhamra port in Orissa state, being built by Indian conglomerate Tata group, is close to the beaches of Gahirmatha, one of the few remaining mass nesting sites of the Olive Ridleys in the world.

The group recently conducted a 40-day study of the ecology around the port site and came across more than 2,000 turtles, rare horseshoe crabs, crab-eating frogs, dolphins and snakes, killed by mechanized fishing boats.

The port site is not a turtle nesting ground, but is part of the breeding and feeding ground for many species and is intrinsically rich in bio-diversity, it said.

"The Tatas, who claim to be a socially responsible company, now have to decide if they want to place profits above environment," Ashish Fernandes, Greenpeace's oceans campaigner, told a conference.

"We have an incontrovertible scientific critique of their project and we have sent a report to them as well."