Kendrapara: Forest and farmlands are disappearing fast due to mushrooming of illegal prawn gheries in this district, a report said.
Meanwhile, over 20,000 prawn gheries have come up in the district while the permission granted by the district fisheries department is only for 729 gheries. Even people establishing prawn gheries are not sparing land under eco-sensitive zones and establishing their gheries in the areas in violation of norms.
As a result, forest land is disappearing fast in the district while the saline water and waste discharged by the prawn gheries are polluting the canal water and that of other water bodies and affecting the cultivation in the areas lying close to the gheries.
This has sparked serious concern among the residents and environmentalists as they fear this might lead to disaster in days to come in the district if left unchecked.
A farmer Radhashyam Mandal of Badatubi village under Mahakalapara tehsil said that mushrooming of prawn gheries has been fast affecting their lives and livelihood. This year, he borrowed money from others and cultivated paddy in this Kharif season on his 8 acre of farmland.
However, his cultivation was destroyed in the saline water discharged from a prawn gheri. Earlier, he has drawn the attention of the block and the district administration towards this problem but to no avail. The forest and tehsil officials are pulling down the illegal prawn gheries after the harvest period but the gheri owners are quick to put them up soon as soon as the raid stops.
Mandal apprehends that in coming days farmers like he will not be able to carry out cultivation in the area. Environmentalist Hemant Kumar Rout said that the district administration is of the view that the spread of gheries is on 6,000 acre of land but in a reality the actual spread of prawn gheries is much more than on 20,000 acre of land.
The Union government has established eco-sensitive zones to protect the forest lands but several gheries can be found within 2-km of coastlines. Even gheries have been built on forest land in violation of norms.
The Orissa High Court has directed to pull down the prawn gheries but the order is hardly carried out in the district. He expressed concern that the effluents discharged from the prawn gheries are destroying the environment on the coastlines and the forest areas.
A prawn farmer Ratikant Debnath said the district lacks any employment opportunities while cultivation is not alluring due to low earnings. However, working in prawn gheri gives him better income.
When contacted, Mahakalapara forest ranger Sahaji Charan Biswal said they have pulled down illegally built prawn gheries over 140 acre of forest land in last one week. The land cleared from encroachment will be put to use in creation of mangrove forests, he said.
District fisheries officer Mamata Mohapatra said that the district administration is demolishing the illegal prawn gheries which comes to its notice while the permission is only for 1,400 prawn gheries.
PNN