Manoj Kar, Kalinga Times 5 Mar 08;
Kendrapara (Orissa), March 5: The latest mangrove regeneration programme undertaken in Bhitarkanika national park to compensate the dwindling coastal forest cover has turned out to be an absolute fiasco.
There are no visible signs of mangrove regeneration activity in the core forest area. Prawn gheries have sprouted up on the land where the forest personnel claimed to have planted mangrove saplings not long back. The species died young as prawn cultivators ravaged the once lush green forestland, according to local forest protection groups.
Stung by criticism that forest officials promote and patronise unauthorised prawn farming, the national park authorities had embarked on the regeneration of mangroves in nearly 5,000 hectares of forestland sometime back. Those patches were under unauthorised occupation of prawn farmers. Ironically, things are back to square one.
The regenerated patches in Sasanpeta, Kansaradiha, Hetamundia, Sanatubi, Badatubi and Batighar under Mahakalpada forest blocks now wear denuded look.
For regeneration programme, the forest department spent Rs 26 lakh Central grants released by the union ministry of forest and environment. The conservation exercise was undertaken under management action plan for mangroves, said sources.
If the ground realities are any indication, the prawn mafias took to centre stage hardly a month after the mangroves were regenerated. Conservationists tend to believe that regeneration scheme that has
been extended to other deforested areas of Mahanadi deltaic region of the Bhitarkanika national park would meet the doomed fate.
With allegations of collusion of officials with prawn farms flying thick and fast, prospect of regenerated forest thriving long is remote. Writ of prawn farms runs in forest areas as national park officials turn blind eye to wanton destruction mangrove species along the luxuriant wetland.
Prawn farming has emerged as a potent money-spinning business in these parts. And this goes on unabated allegedly under the patronising hands of forest officials.
The mangrove regeneration scheme is being implemented half-heartedly. Besides there is absolute absence of watch and vigil on forest areas, observed sources.
Conceding the fact that similar exercise undertaken in past has not been entirely successful in checking the mangrove degradation, forest officials however denied that prawn mafias run parallel administration
within Bhitarkanika. There are specific pockets of the national park where prawn gheries have unlawfully sprouted up. Steps are being taken to demolish those in a phased manner, informed sources.
Bhitarkanika wildlife sanctuary presents contrasting paradoxes. Illegal human settlements coupled with alarming growth of prawn farming in the reserve forest areas have hit hard its fragile eco-system.
There are at least 410 villages within the site having more than two lakh human populations. Historically, migrants from neighbouring States, even from across the Bangladesh borders, have settled here destroying the mangroves in the process. The settlements that came up following the influx of migrants have in the meanwhile been declared as revenue villages by the State government more out of political compulsion.
The migrants served as secured vote banks for the ruling parties over the years. As a result, as many as 43 revenue villages continue to thrive in the core area causing irreparable damage to peripheral flora and fauna in Bhitarkanika ecosystem. The wasteland and pastureland that erroneously form part of revenue land are all encroached upon.
