Paradip: Port based industrial town Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district has been hailed as a gateway for Odisha’s progress. But this honour is soon to be replaced with a disgraceful identity.
Chances are high that the port town may come under the bracket of ‘critical area’, and if it is accorded it would put an end to all possibilities of industrialization.
195 countries were the signatories of the Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015. The treaty requires all the signatories to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and limit the use of fossil fuels.
A set of guidelines of that treaty reached all the 195 countries, including India, April 19, 2019. In accordance with these guidelines, the Forest and Environment Department of the Central Government is going to alter some of its rules.
Earlier, areas creating 70 per cent pollution were being declared as ‘critical’ areas. Now, it has been reduced to 60 percent. It means, if 60 per cent pollution is found in an area, it would get the tag ‘critical area’, and the tag does not allow any further setting up of industries in that area.
If such limit of pollution is taken into consideration, Paradip will be at the top of the list. This is the reason why the Forest and Environment Department is going to declare the port town as ‘critical area’. The department is said to be preparing necessary documents in this regard and the declaration would come inside one month.
The Central Pollution Control Board identified 88 towns and placed them under ‘Red’ category in 2017. Four places in Odisha are among those 88 towns.
In 2005, the pollution level in Paradip was just 69.24 per cent. And no survey has since been conducted to ascertain the pollution level of this port town. Obvious as it is that the pollution level may have gone up.
And, the Forest Department is to be solely thanked for this. Because the Forest Department is not properly ensuring the guidelines laid out in the act. For example, there is a standing guideline that an industry must create green coverage on 33 per cent of its total area. In Paradip, there are 15 big industries and none of them is following this. The report the Forest Department placed before the Assembly Housing Committee mentions that plantation has been carried out on 18 per cent of the total land.
On the other hand, some industry authorities allege that the State Government is not providing them with land for creating greenery. Some others are of the opinion that they are carrying out plantation drive in other areas including Puri, Khurda etc.
Even a yeoman would ask can pollution be checked by planting trees in areas other than where there are industries.
The Super Cyclone in 1999 had caused massive destruction to the greeneries in the port town. Meanwhile 20 years have elapsed but the ravaged greeneries are still waiting to be replenished. In this regard, the forest department maintains a stoic silence. What makes the matter worse is that cutting of the reserve mangrove on the Mahanadi estuary has continuously been going on since 2014.
On the other hand, the Central and State governments have been on the spree of declaring setting up of new industries and expansion of old ones. JSW’s Steel Plant, Deepak Fertliser, Plastic Park, Polypropylene Down Stream Industry are among the industries that have formed a line to set up their industries in Paradip area. Similarly, Berth No-IIIrd of Paradip port, Ammonia Nitrate plant of PPL and some projects of oil refinery are to be expanded.
It is par for the course that some individuals and organizations would take the matter to court if the question of setting up of industries arises even after Paradip being declared as ‘critical area’.
PNN