Bhubaneswar: A recent decision of the General Administration (GA) department to take over 20 acres of Ekamra Kanan land has raised eyebrows among the environmentalists and activists.
The farmland spread over 25 acres have 20 acres of nursery beds, diverse species of several trees and the remaining five acres have some buildings. The green activists have alleged that the government has planned the alienation of the land for construction of high-rise building by destroying the green cover there, an allegation yet to be confirmed by the government.
An official communication (No 8336) from the GA department to Horticulture department said, “This is to intimate that decision has been taken by the government to surrender 20.192 acres from Ekamra Kanan Farm to GA and PG department excepting an area of 5.775 acre where there are buildings.”
A representation from the green activists has also been sent to the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and Housing and Urban Development department seeking their intervention. It is said that the Ekamra Kanan Farm (Orchard) was established in 1975 and in 1985 it was divided into two parts as-Regional Plant Research Centre under the forest department and Ekamra Kanan farm orchard under the horticulture department.
“Around 3,500 fruit and medicinal big green trees are there in the entire area on the mentioned plots. The farm supplies various fruit plants and medicinal plants to six different districts of Odisha. But a civil construction/high rise building construction inside the farm will bring an end to such beneficial activities forever,” the letter from environmentalists-Banibrata Tripathy, Sushanta Kumar Jena and Ashwini Kumar Mohapatra said.
“Latest statistics claim that Khurda district is still short of 14 per cent of recommended green cover as per the National Forest Policy. Any threat to the existing green cover in the district especially in regions like Bhubaneswar is likely to harm the local ecology,” Shankar Prasad Pani, lawyer with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said.
According to government records, the site is home to different species of mangoes with some standing for more than 75 years. Other species like guava, amla, cashew, coconut, litchi, pine apple and others also exist. The department is also said to have collected Rs 35 lakh as revenues from them as per the latest figures. Plant research works are also taken on the site.
When contacted for response, GA department Principal Secretary Sanjeev Chopra didn’t respond to the queries.
Manish Kumar, OP