This story is from December 27, 2020

130 acres of illegal prawn farms in Kendrapada razed

Government officials have recently demolished 130 acres of illegal prawn gheries in the seaside villages of Badatubi and Sanatubi under Batighar gram panchayat within Mahakalapada forest range of the district.
130 acres of illegal prawn farms in Kendrapada razed
Officials at an illegal prawn farm in Kendrapada
KENDRAPADA: Government officials have recently demolished 130 acres of illegal prawn gheries in the seaside villages of Badatubi and Sanatubi under Batighar gram panchayat within Mahakalapada forest range of the district.
“Under police protection, we demolished the prawn farms, which had illegally come up on forest land, over the past four days. The shrimp farms are illegal as they violate the coastal regulation zone provisions and the rulings of the Supreme Court and the high court,” said Sahaji Charana Biswal, forest range officer of Mahakalapada.
“We will plant mangrove saplings on this land to convert the area into a mangrove forest,” he said.
Prawn farm owners dump the effluent of the gheries into the nearby rivers and ponds, and end up polluting the groundwater sources in the villages. Illegal prawn farms pose a direct threat to the mangrove forests nearby. “Recently, many villagers of these areas blamed the prawn farms and their effluent for destroying fertile agriculture lands,” added the forest officer.
Mamata Mohapatra, district fisheries officer of Kendrapada, said, “Only 729 shrimp farmers of the district have registered their farms, which cover 1,400 acres of land. Farmers cultivating shrimp without registering the farms with the Coastal Aquaculture Authority (CAA) are liable to be imprisoned for three years and pay a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh.” Prawn farmers are upset with the authorities for demolishing their farms. “Paddy cultivation is not profit-making in the seaside villages. Hence, we converted our land into prawn farms. The officials have no right to take action against us. Many of us applied to the district fisheries officer to get permission under CAA to convert our land into shrimp farms, but the applications are gathering dust,” said Bharat Mandal, a shrimp farm owner of Badatubi.
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