Very far away from habitation, deep in the Southern Ocean, almost on the fringes of a vast stretch of the Antarctic Circle between Australia and South America—easily one of the most remote and difficult sea terrains on the planet—a decade-long battle has been ensuing. It involves the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd on one hand and the Japanese whaling fleets on the other. The Sea Shepherd has been striving tirelessly to prevent the poaching of whales by Japanese whaling fleets.

In 2014, The Steve Irwin, one of Sea Shepherd’s popular conservation ships, was led into action in the dangerously turbulent and choppy waters of 50º-60º S by Siddharth Chakravarty, a younger mariner from Nasik, India. Along with another Sea Shepherd ship, The Bob Barker, the group engaged in “non-violent, direct action” to keep the whalers at bay. The crew members risked their lives after their vessels were hit by the larger whaling vessels. That did not deter them from pursuing the poachers well into March, a month fraught with huge navigational risks due to the rapid ice formation, large-scale upwelling, intense cyclonic storms and the strongest average winds found anywhere on earth.

Operation Relentless in 2014 was the tenth Antarctic Whale Defence Campaign by Sea Shepherd which has saved the lives of an estimated 4,500 whales. It remains committed to protecting the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary by directly intervening against the illegal operations of the whaling fleet. Utterly motivated in pursuing what he has chosen to, Chakravarty, during the course of an interview with India Empire says, “I spent 10 years working on commercial ships, and then I realized that I could use my skills to safeguard the future of this planet, and that of the oceans.”

The inspirational story of Captain Chakravarty and Sea Shepherd is on our cover. Elsewhere in the magazine there is a raft of stories, including ones on investment and enterprise. The EY’s Attractiveness Survey for India 2014, for instance, talks about, among other issues, on how FDI in India compares with global investment trends, and strengthening of India’s manufacturing ecosystem.

Happy reading.

(sayantanc@gmail.com)