Turtle to save turtles

The fight to preserve the fresh and marine water turtle population along the coasts of Orissa and Gujarat is being backed today by the Kolkata-based menswear major, Turtle Ltd, which will donate Re 1 from every sale it makes during 2008 under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative for this cause.

In 2008, it hopes to sell 1.5 million units.

The company has joined hands with WWF India and the Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) to fund projects on turtle conservation.

In 2007, it donated Rs 8 lakh to organisations.

At a press conference, Amit Ladsaria, director of the company, said, "Our CSR activity is in alignment with our brand. We chose 'Turtle' as the brandname because our vision and philosophy assimilates the virtues of the animal. We have been associated with Wildlife Society of Orissa and WWF India since 2006 and have spent around Rs 20 lakh. We hope to see an increase in the population of fresh water turtles, the Green and Olive Ridley species."

The company is involved in funding conservation projects in the downstream of the Mahanadi, Garihmata, Devi and Jatadhar river mouths in Orissa and alongwith selected coasts of Gujarat.

According to Biswajit Mohanty, secretary, Wildlife Society of Orissa, "Based on the funding provided by Turtle, surveys are being carried out in the distributaries of the Mahanadi downstream of Cuttack city. The aim is to determine the types of species and the levels of poaching. Field camp has been set up at Sankharishi village located on Devi river left bank. We will use the funds to cover all the major river systems of Orissa which have fresh water turtles."

Mohanty claimed, "Around 2-3 quintals of turtles are poached every week in Orissa and brought to West Bengal for meat".