Context:
- The forest advisory committee of the Centre refused clearance for the Greenfield airport project in Puri, Odisha, citing some environmental issues.
Key Highlights:
- The endangered Olive Ridley turtle nesting site and the threatened Irrawaddy Dolphin are two of the major reasons for the decision of not given clearance.
- The project site at Brahmagiri (Puri) is quite too near to the INS Chilka naval base and to the Central Asian flyway.
Olive Ridley Sea Turtle
- The second-smallest and most abundant in the Cheloniidae family.
- It is found in warm waters, as well as tropical and subtropical regions, notably within the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
- Mostly Found
- Tropical regions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.
- IUCN status
- Endangered
Irrawaddy Dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris)
- Found In
- Coastal seas and estuaries of Bay of Bengal and southeast Asia.
- Concentrated lagoon populations are found in Chilika Lake in Odisha, India and Songkhla Lake in southern Thailand.
- IUCN Status
- Endangered
