In our po­lit­i­cal land­scape, nev­er has the adage "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is do­ing" been more painful­ly ob­vi­ous. On the one hand, the new Min­is­ter of Tourism (Stephen Cadiz) talks about the new and in­no­v­a­tive tourism prod­ucts that we have to of­fer. On the oth­er hand, we have thou­sands of ba­by Leatherback tur­tles be­ing bull­dozed in front of hor­ri­fied res­i­dents and tourists alike.

Any­one who has made the long jour­ney to Grand Riv­iere will at­test to the breath­tak­ing sight of the Leatherback nest­ing and hatch­ing, the nat­ur­al beau­ty of the land­scape, and the warmth of the lo­cal com­mu­ni­ty. The Leatherback tur­tle is list­ed as a crit­i­cal­ly en­dan­gered species un­der the IUCN Red List. They are pro­tect­ed un­der many in­ter­na­tion­al con­ven­tions to which we are sig­na­to­ry, and in­ter­na­tion­al trade in them is il­le­gal. They are a high­ly mi­gra­to­ry species prone to many ocean threats, the biggest of which is fish­ing. Pro­tec­tion of nest­ing beach­es is cru­cial to their sur­vival and has been the fo­cus of in­tense con­ser­va­tion ef­forts world­wide.

A grow­ing eco-tourism in­dus­try has al­so bur­geoned around the nest­ing sites, ben­e­fit­ing the lo­cal com­mu­ni­ties that take pride in pro­tect­ing them. As economies de­vel­op, it is more and more ob­vi­ous that the en­vi­ron­ment suf­fers un­less safe­guards ex­ist. And yet our en­vi­ron­men­tal of­fi­cials who are charged with en­forc­ing these very safe­guards la­bel this de­struc­tion as "un­for­tu­nate" and "nec­es­sary."

While the me­dia can sen­sa­tion­alise and peo­ple do get emo­tion­al, this does not negate the fact that there are many valid ques­tions that the pub­lic should ask, and that the EMA and the rel­e­vant min­istries should an­swer. Why did the ex­ca­va­tion take place dur­ing prime nest­ing and hatch­ing sea­son? I imag­ine the riv­er did not shift course yes­ter­day. I al­so imag­ine that riv­er shifts have oc­curred be­fore. So how was this pre­vi­ous­ly han­dled with­out this type of de­struc­tion? Why was no EMA of­fi­cial or min­istry of­fi­cial with a clear line of au­thor­i­ty present to over­see the ex­ca­va­tion? The ex­cuse that "in­struc­tions were not fol­lowed" can­not be good enough.

These ac­tions show a cal­lous­ness and dis­re­gard by pub­lic of­fi­cials for the en­vi­ron­ment and for the eco-sys­tems up­on which many de­pend. It is in­deed iron­ic that this in­ci­dent takes place along­side many high-pro­file po­lit­i­cal events that claim to put en­vi­ron­men­tal af­fairs front and cen­tre, such as the in­creased fund­ing last year of com­mu­ni­ty pa­trols of tur­tle nest­ing sites on the north­east coast by the then Min­is­ter of Hous­ing and the En­vi­ron­ment, and of course the re­cent cre­ation of the Min­istry of the En­vi­ron­ment and Wa­ter Re­sources.

On the oth­er hand, it has been heart­en­ing to see the out­pour­ing of dis­may and sad­ness be­ing col­lec­tive­ly ex­pressed by the na­tion­al pop­u­la­tion. Whether or not one lives in Grand Riv­iere, the en­vi­ron­ment is a pub­lic good that ben­e­fits us all. We have col­lec­tive pride in its beau­ty, we have col­lec­tive re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for its preser­va­tion, and we all (lo­cal­ly, na­tion­al­ly and glob­al­ly) have a right and a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to ques­tion ac­tions that dam­age it.

Son­ja Teelucks­ingh

Via e-mail