Leather Back Turtle

In July this year thousands of leatherback turtle eggs and hatchlings were crushed when the Ministry of Works (Drainage Division) entered the beach with bulldozers to move waterlogged sand from key nesting areas.  They said it was necessary to redirect a river which was eroding the beach and threatening a hotel used by tourists to watch the turtles.  Environmentalists, however, say the Government workers botched the job and destroyed some 20,000 eggs. Starting this week CATHAL HEALY-SINGH, an environmental engineer with over 20 years of diverse experience is our guest columnist for a three-part series where he examines exactly where we went wrong.