Kendrapara: Five years have elapsed since the Odisha government wrote to the Home Ministry seeking permission to raise a special police battalion that will enhance security along the state’s 480 km-long coastline. However, the Union Home Ministry is yet to reply to it. The then additional secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy had mentioned in the letter that the setting up of the proposed Coastal India Reserve Battalion (CIRB) will help in supplementing the efforts of the marine police in tightening security along the coastline. Locals in this town, including Radhakanta Mohanty said that out of the 480km-long coastline, 48 kilometres pass through Kendrapara district. The Talachua, Tantiapal and Jambu marine police stations have been set up for maintaining security along the coastline.
However, lack of proper infrastructure and manpower shortage has hampered their functioning. Rampant intrusions are taking place on a daily basis as these police stations do not have boats to patrol the coastline. During the India-Pakistan war in 1971, a total of 1,237 refugees from Bangladesh were rehabilitated by the Odisha government in remote corners of Kendrapara district.
However, the numbers have grown astoundingly since then with 76,000 Bengali-speaking people now living in the region. These settlers are creating huge problems for the Bhitarkanika National Park which is home to saltwater crocodiles, various species of wildlife, reptiles, birds, and mangrove plantations. They have cleared green cover on large tracts of land to establish prawn gherries. The problems can be resolved if the CIRB is set up and deployed in the area, locals said. A senior resident of this town, Amarbar Biswal informed that police unearthed a fake radio station at Banipal inside the Bhitarkanika forest in 2001.
A probe found out that it was being used to send confidential defence secrets about Wheeler Island (now Abdul Kalam Island) from where the country tests newly-developed missiles. In 2002, miscreants involved in illegal fishing shot dead a guard after Rajnagar forest officials tried to seize the trawler. In another incident, coastguard personnel was involved in a shootout with some fishermen who were illegally catching fish in the prohibited zone of Gahirmatha marine sanctuary in 2019. A probe has revealed that the coastline has become porous and the entry point for all sorts of illegal activities like the smuggling of firearms, fake currency notes, and drugs.
Locals said that the formation of the CIRB will help in reducing illegal activities. Social activist Pratap Chandra Padhi informed that several boats from Bangladesh have been seized during raids by the Forest department in the last three years. This year 10 boats have been seized only in November. It goes to show how illegal activities are flourishing, he added. Padhi asserted that the formation of the CIRB is a must for the security of India as well as the protection of wildlife in Bhitarkanika. When contacted, SDPO Jayant Mohapatra said that the establishment of CIRB is the need of the hour. He added that intrusion to some extent has been checked after the setting up of the marine police stations.