Bahanaga: Prawn mafia continues to grab thousands of hectares of government land, particularly in littoral pockets under Bahanaga and Remuna blocks in Balasore district.
But the administration has not taken action against the mafia. Large tracts of pastureland were also encroached upon and prawn ponds had been dug up.
Local farmers allege that toxic water from the prawn ponds mixes with water in nearby farmlands and damages crops. They opposed such land grabbing and illegal prawn farming and demanded that the administration take steps.
The revenue department has registered cases and imposed penalty ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 4,000 on land encroachers under the Orissa Prevention of Government Land Encroachment Act. However, such actions have not deterred the mafia, the farmers claimed.
Local people accused revenue inspectors (RIs) of indirectly encouraging the mafia to grab land and take up prawn farming. Most of the prawn farms are illegally run in order to evade tax, it was learnt.
A prawn farm gives average revenue of Rs 5 lakh from an acre of land. According to a report, the mafia has grabbed over 250 acres of land and made ponds in Talapada under Remuna block.
The illegal farming has also taken a heavy toll on the marine ecosystem and paddy cultivation. Toxic water from prawn ponds is released into the sea and farmland. When turtles come ashore to lay eggs they die after coming in contact with the toxic waters, local said. They also said that the toxic water causes various diseases to paddy plants.
“The water released from prawn ponds is toxic. It mingles with the sea water. Fish were found dead due to the toxicity of water in the sea,” said Raghunath Das, a fisherman of Talapada.
He said if prawn farming is allowed to grow, marine fish species along the coast will vanish in course of time due to the water toxicity.
Farmer Debendra Mallick said the expanding of prawn farming has gobbled up government land along the coast. Domestic animals have no pastures to graze, he added.
Additional tehsildar of Remuna Amiya Rout said he has directed RIs to look into the land grabbing by prawn farmers. He added that he would take action against the encroachers only after getting the investigation report.
Additional tehsildar of Bahanaga, Prabhat Mohapatra, said as per law, a case has been registered against a prawn farmer who has grabbed land and fine was imposed on him. On the collector’s directive, the grabbed land has been taken back, he added. PNN
