Tata and the turtles

Bombay House, Homi Mody Street, Mumbai – Tata HQ. The placid brownstone façade and the liveried guard beneath the awning at its entrance contrast starkly with the bustling noisiness of the street. The building is deceptively quiet. A casual passerby would have no way of knowing that this is in fact the headquarters of one of the fastest growing and most powerful corporate groups in the world. From here, like the proverbial octopus, the conglomerate’s tentacles are in almost every sphere of life in India, and rapidly spreading throughout much of Africa, Europe and the Americas as well.

Some 1,500km due east of Mumbai in the Indian state of Orissa, on the other side of the Indian subcontinent, the beach is alive. Puffs of sand are spouting up everywhere, as thousands of turtles clamber, crawl and dig their nest holes. It’s a cold, misty February morning and sunrise is just a few minutes away. The mass nesting, or arribada, of olive ridley sea turtles in Orissa is one of the wonders of the natural world; a sight guaranteed to leave an indelible memory on anyone fortunate enough to witness it, but one that is as threatened as it is amazing.

The beaches of the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary...

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