Rajnagar: The redrawing of boundaries of Bhitarkanika National Park (BNP) after a span of four decades under this block in Kendrapara district has sparked up sharp protest, a report said.
The administration has excluded 52 villages from the territorial boundaries of Bhitarkanika while redrawing the boundaries. The residents questioned the yardstick on the basis of which the administration excluded the 52 villages from the limits of Bhitarkanika.
The matter came to fore after the residents under the aegis of Rajnagar-Pattamundai Surakshya Manch met the Rajnagar DFO and submitted a memorandum to him in this regard.
They demanded to revise the map of the national park failing which they will be ‘forced to launch an agitation within a week’ if their pleas were not addressed, residents Debadutta Sethi, Siba Prasad Mohapatra, Raghbendra Mohanty, Tusharkanta Biswal and Jagabandhu Khatua said.
They alleged that that the administration without publishing any notice, conducting any surveys or fixing any benchmark whimsically excluded the 52 villages from the territorial limits of Bhitarkanika. They demanded that the redrawing of boundaries of Bhitarkanika should be suspended as the residents have not been informed or are aware about it.
They claimed that the block headquarters of Rajnagar as well as the panchayats like Mahishasur, Kuranti, Mahulia, Chandibaunshamula and Bhitaragad where there is no trace of any jungle and are at a distance of 30 km from the Bhitarkanika forests have been included in its boundaries while the villages on its fringes or even inside it have been excluded from the boundaries of the national park.
These areas have been entangled in the forest laws as these villages have been marked inside the boundaries of Bhitarkanika.
Reports said the administration included all the villages of Rajnagar block and 90 villages of 12 panchayats in Rajkanaika block in the territorial boundary of Bhitarkanika April 22, 1975.
The residents claimed that erroneous drawing of boundaries sparked up resentment among the residents for which they have been agitating for the last 45 years.
PNN