Baliapal: The prawn mafia is busy at work in Baliapal area in Balasore district, eating up tracts of land along the Hanskara riverbank and its embankments near Chaulati village in Jambirai panchayat.
Villagers say the prawn mafia is blocking the flow of the river by putting in place netted enclosures in the outfall area of the river, thus posing a danger to the embankment of the river as well as the village.
According to reports, the prawn mafia has now set its sights on the suitable geo-climatic condition of the riparian village through which the Hanskara passes before merging into the Bay of Bengal. Now, farmlands in the area are vulnerable to the ingression of sea water after an embankment around the village was washed away in devastating floods in 2007.
The embankment was built by the irrigation department. Villagers said after the embankment collapsed, floods wreaked havoc in the area, rendering the farmlands completely unfit for raising paddy for almost three years.
Later, the irrigation department along with help from villagers repaired the embankment. People have been cultivating paddy ever since.
But what worries farmers is that the mafia began to encroach upon government land on both sides of the river by digging out over a hundred ponds for prawn farming, despite resistance from villagers.
Pond digging activities are becoming rampant beginning from Chaulati village to Kuchulaghati village.
Villagers alleged that as the riverbank areas are obstructed by ponds and encroachments, the sea water which enters the area during tides do not find an outlet. “Sea water gushes through the river and erodes its banks. If the erosion is not checked and encroachments from the area are not removed, the village and farmland will be severely affected,” they lamented.
A couple of days ago, villagers including Sisir Kumar Sethi, Sukumar Mandal, Paresh Mandal, Sushant Mandal and Subrat Mandal submitted representations to the collector, tehsildar and RDC in Cuttack.
Tehsildar Jagabandhu Mallick assured locals that necessary
action will be taken in this direction after conducting a spot investigation. PNN
