KENDRAPARA: Blowing the lid off the illegal prawn farming nexus going on within the park, 250 packets of baby prawn worth Rs 4 lakh were seized from a fishing boat on Tuesday by Forest officials of Bhitarkanika National Park here. On April 11, forest officials had seized baby prawns from four vans at Khola within the park.
“We laid our hands on around 5 lakh baby prawns which were packed in the 250 packets at Talachua fishing jetty and detained two persons on charges of illegally supplying those to the prawn farm owners within the park. We released all the seized baby prawns in the nearby river Patsala,” said Manas Das, Forest range officer of the park.
Sources said, officials of the department got a tip-off about prawn farm owners scheming to illegally carry baby prawns in a boat from Dhamra after purchasing seeds from some hatcheries in Balasore. “We seized the baby prawns to prevent the farm owners from releasing the seeds in the prawn farms, illegally owned by them,” Das said.
The forest department has recently imposed a blanket ban on the construction of prawn farms in Bhitarkanika National Park to protect mangrove forests. On the orders of the Orissa High Court in 2017, the department has been demolishing illegal prawn gheries in Bhitarkanika. During the summers, a cohort of locals and prawn mafia gets active but they have been warned not to convert any government, forest or private land into prawn farms. “Legal action will be taken against those violating rules of the Coastal Regulation Zone, rulings of the Supreme Court and High Court,” added the forest officer.
However, prawn farm owners allege harassment at the hands of the department officials. “We have been doing prawn farming on our land outside the park but the department officials are depriving us of our only means of livelihood,” said Niranjan Mandal, a prawn farm owner of Khola.
Sub-Collector attacked by stone mafia
Dhenkanal: Sadar Sub-Collector Bibhuti Bhusan Nayak and his staff were allegedly assaulted by stone mafia during a raid on a quarry in Indupur on Monday night. On Tuesday, Nayak lodged an FIR with Sadar police basing on which six persons were arrested. North Central DIG Sarthak Sarangi said Nayak along with some staff raided a stone quarry in Indupur when they came under attack by the mafia. The Sub-Collector sustained minor injuries in the assault.