CHENNAI: The forest department has halted the construction of the ‘unauthorised’ building inside Pulicat bird sanctuary and asked Tiruvallur district administration to cancel the patta, which was issued after a controversial reclassification.
The action was taken a day after TNIE wrote how Ponneri revenue officials issued patta (land ownership) to an individual in 2021, while being fully aware that the land falls within the Pulicat bird sanctuary.
Confirming development to TNIE, chief wildlife warden Srinivas R Reddy said, “We have stopped the work and will be sending a formal communication to Tiruvallur district collector to cancel the patta. The jurisdictional district forest officer will also be meeting the collector on Wednesday.”
Reddy also said that a decision on demolishing the illegal building was yet to be taken and acknowledged that the revenue officials were wrong on their part to issue patta for land coming under a bird sanctuary. The Ponneri revenue officials had issued the patta document for 2.45 ha of land inside the sanctuary. The area in question falls in survey number 55, which was classified as coastal poramboke land in the revenue records until 2021, when it was divided into two subdivisions. The area in 55/1 is still a poramboke land, however patta was given for 55/2.
It is quite evident that the building was coming-up in the middle of the flood channel, which had dried-up completely since this summer. During the rainy season, the place would be filled with flood water. There was no other construction in the survey number. K Saravanan, fishermen leader and member of Coastal Resource Centre, said there are a large number of coastal wetlands that are falling outside the boundary of Pulicat bird sanctuary that are prone to exploitation. “The government, which is now trying to issue final notification of Pulicat bird sanctuary, must ensure these wetlands that attract substantial bird life and source of livelihood for hundreds of fishermen are given protection.”