Berhampur: With the state government have been approved 415-km coastal highway from Gopalpur to Digha, the environmentalist and winner of Green Nobel prize Prafulla Samnatra has strongly opposed the project. He warned that the project would spell doom to the marine ecology in the area. He expressed his concern on the matter at a press meeting in Berhampur of Ganjam district Friday.
Sources said, almost four years after its approval by the Centre, Odisha government has given green signal to the Rs 7,500 crore Coastal Highway project that will link Gopalpur in the state and Digha of West Bengal, a state minister said.
The coastal highway project, announced by Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari in April 2015, spreads over 415 kilometres from Gopalpur to Digha.
The project was cleared by the state government after it agreed to the original alignment of Satpada-Digha stretch via Puri-Konark-Astarang-Ratanpur-Dhamara-Basudevpur- Chandipur.
But Samnatray said that construction of the project will damage the mangrove forest in the beach area of Digha and Gopalpur as well as the project will also damage the marine bio-diversity of Chilika and Bhitarkanika i.e. marine flora and fauna of the two water bodies as the duo come between Digha and Gopalpur area.
He said that an increasing number of vehicles in the sea area due to the national highway will destroy the clean environment of the sea and its nearby area. The road will stand on the path of drainage of the rainwater. The frequencies of natural disasters like flood and cyclones will increase by several manifolds, estimated Samantray.
According to him, Odisha always faces the various types of natural calamities, which in alter weaken the economic backbone of the state.
As per the proposal, a 451-km-long coastal highway will be built and named as 516-A. In the first phase, the 240 kilometres stretch from Gopalpur to Ratanpur will be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 2,196 crore.
For the total project the NHAI will acquire land more than 1000 acres in the mangrove forest area of Gopalpur and Digha. As a result, the government has to destroy 33% of mangrove forests in the area.
Though official sources say 25,000 trees will be cut down, but in real several more thousands of trees could be felled to make space for the project, alleged Samantray.
The sturdy root systems of mangrove trees help form a natural barrier against violent storm surges and floods. River and land sediment is trapped by the roots, which protects coastline areas and slows erosion.
A huge variety of wildlife lives or breeds in the mangrove ecosystem, including numerous fish, crab and shrimp species, molluscs, and mammals like sea turtles. The trees are home to an array of nesting, breeding and migratory birds. When mangrove forests are cleared valuable habitat is lost, threatening the survival of myriad species.
Samantray called for all political parties and local outfits to oppose coastal highway project to protect marine ecology of the state.
On the other hand, the state government also informed the National Highway Authorities of India (NHAI) to proceed for obtaining all types of clearances for the project.
Earlier the state government had raised objections on the alignment presented by the NHAI. This apart, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had made some observations on the alignment passing through Chilika Lake and other eco-sensitive areas following which the alignment was modified.