Kendrapara: Farmers and prawn traders have entered into a serious face-off over demolition of prawn gheries in coastal parts of the district ahead of the Bhitarkanika Mahotsav, a report said.
The three-day festival is an attempt to woo tourists and visitors alike to explore the wildlife biodiversity of the national park. While the district administration is making earnest preparation for the Mahotsav scheduled for February 14, the face-off between the farmers’ and traders’ groups has cast doubts on organising the festival and its future.
Farmers have warned that they will be forced to stage a hunger strike outside the district Collectorate if the district administration does not take steps to demolish the prawn gheries.
The matter came to fore after a delegation of farmers of Krushnapriyapur village under Rajnagar block visited the district Collectorate and lodged a complaint against the illegal prawn gheries in the Bhitarkanika National Park, Friday.
The members alleged that the ghery owners have violated the CEC guidelines, Wildlife Acts, revenue laws and coastal protection rules in establishing their prawn gheries in the areas.
The farmers alleged that the gheri owners have dug up channels from the sea to draw water to their gheries. The saline seawater passing through these channels are entering their farmlands and destroying the crops, fertility of their soils and has seriously hit their livelihoods. Their lives and livelihoods will be further pushed into danger if the prawn gheries were not demolished in the area.
They claimed that the prawn gheries are multiplying in the coastal parts of the district. A farmer Ramesh Das said the mushrooming of prawn gheries have dealt a heavy blow to the cultivation in the area.
The prawn culture, being a lucrative trade, more and more people from in and outside the state are encroaching the vacant lands and establishing their prawn gheries near the sanctuary.
Another farmer Uttam Barik said that the prawn gheries are destroying the biological diversity of the Bhitarkanika sanctuary. The process of soil and water management, use of chemicals, injections for protection and growth of the prawns is destroying the fertility of the soil and contaminating the water bodies, locals said.
A social activist Amarbar Biswal said that the prawn gheries have destroyed the brotherhood and amity in the area. Farmers are getting damaged and people often clash among themselves after falling into the trap of the prawn traders. He questioned why the district administration is silent despite the Orissa High Court directing for their (gheries’) demolition.
An RTI activist Pramod Kumar Swain said that over 20 harmful antibiotics and chemicals like chloramphenicol, neomycin, sulfamethoxazole, aristolochia, chloroform and colchicines are being used in the prawn gheries. These chemicals and antibiotics after mixing with water bodies are destroying the aquatic animals and impacting the environment.
When contacted, sub-Collector Jyotishankar Mohapatra said an eviction drive is on to demolish the illegal prawn gheries in the district.
