CUTTACK: Orissa High Court-appointed amicus curiae Mohit Agarwal has sought the court’s direction for physical demarcation of Chilika Lake area where prawn culture activity is prohibited.
Agarwal has sought the direction in his report submitted in the High Court (HC) recently after the fifth meeting of the high-level committee on August 30.
The state government had constituted the committee for protection of Chilika and Bhitarkanika on orders of the HC.
The report pointed out that there has been a dispute relating to the boundary of Chilika within which prawn farming is prohibited. To resolve the issue, the committee on March 1 had delineated the map containing the boundary of Chilika where no coastal aquaculture was permissible.
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“I have time and again suggested to the committee to go a step further and delineate the boundary physically by putting pillars at intervals so that the authorities can decide that within the pillar boundary no prawn culture will be permitted,” Agarwal said in his report filed on September 9.
“Locals will accordingly be sensitised about it and efforts in satellite survey and physical verification will come down. The committee may thus be directed to deal with my suggestions and take reasoned decision thereon,” he said.
The data supplied by the government indicated that there has been massive increase in the area of illegal prawn culture farms while the matter is going on in this court.
“When I tried to point this fact before the committee in its meeting on August 30 and requested to take some action against the erring officers of the district administration who are not doing their work and are flouting the orders of the court, the chairman of the committee outrightly rejected my prayer and on the contrary, stated that the illegal prawn farms have not increased,” Agarwal said in his report, while stating that the committee is not functioning as per high court directions.
On April 3, 2017, the Supreme Court had issued a direction to the Chief Justice of High Courts in 15 states to take up the issue of conservation of ecology of important wetlands. Of the 26 major wetlands located in those, two were located in Odisha.
In pursuance of it, the high court had taken up the issue by suo motu registering a PIL in September 2017 for restoration of the ecology of Bhitarkanika National Park in Kendrapara district and Chilika Lake encompassing areas in Puri, Ganjam and Khurda districts.
The court had later appointed Mohit Agarwal as Amicus Curiae for the PIL.