Indian Ocean Turtle Newsletter No. 6

Letters to the Editor

Acquisition of land and construction of a not granted for poor fishermen to construct houses tourism resort at Thaikadappuram in the zone.

Further, no Environmental Impact Assessment has Sir, been carried out while starting such a huge project

in this ecologically sensitive area. The exploitation This is an appeal to protest against the acquisition of drinking water will be another major threat; this of land and construction of a tourism resort at is one of the few coastal areas in where the Thaikadappuram, which will jeopardise turtle ground water is not saline. We appeal to you, to conservation in the area. Naithal, an organisation protest against construction of this resort so that for coastal information conservation and action, this breeding site may be saved. Kindly make your was established in the year, 2001. Prior to its appeal (with a copy to us) to: establishment, a group of youth were active in environmental issues of the area especially against sand mining in the coastal areas of 1. Hon’ble Chief Minister, Government municipality, and Nileshwar Grama Panchayat of of Kerala District, Kerala. The organisation came 2. Ministry of Environment and Forests, into being as a result of their aspiration to give New Delhi such activities a structured form. The organisation 3. Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) won the battle against sand mining in the area that and Chief Wildlife Warden, Kerala Forests comes under the Coastal Regulation Zone Act. The and Wildlife Department, Govt. of Kerala. tangible consequence of preserving pure drinking 4. District Collector, Kasaragod water enabled it to get the wholehearted support of 5. Municipal Chairman, Kanhangad the locals. However, there is a new problem. The Municipality, Kasaragod constructions of the tourist resort at Ozhinhavalappu in Kanhangad Municipality, Sudheer Kumar is a site where olive ridley Naithal (Coastal Information Conservation and turtles nest in greatest abundance. Beach lighting Action) Reg No. 814/03 and tourists are sure to prevent turtles from nesting Thaikadappuram P.0., Via, at this site. Interestingly, the construction is very Kasaragod Dist., Kerala – 671314 close to the high tide line, whereas permission is Email: sudheer_nlr @yahoo.com

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