CUTTACK: The alleged illegal operation of a 15,800 metric tonne per annum capacity fish meal and scrap fish processing unit at Tundura under Remuna block in Balasore district has come under the National Green Tribunal (NGT) scanner.
The tribunal constituted a high-level fact-finding committee on April 17 and asked it to submit report within four weeks. The four-member panel includes regional director of Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), Bhubaneswar, senior scientists of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) and Balasore district collector.
In a petition, Bipin Bihari Das, resident of the nearby locality, had alleged that the unit has been operating since 2023 with an annual processing capacity of 5,000 metric tonne fish meal and 10,800 metric tonne surimi (fish paste).
The petitioner alleged the factory operates on the banks of a natural creek locally known as Kantachira river which connects the green fields with the Orissa coast canal and Bay of Bengal and releases untreated water into the sea through the river after washing huge quantity of rotten scrap fish.
Advocate Sankar Prasad Pani along with advocare Ashutosh Padhy represented the petitioner and made submissions in virtual mode. The NGT’s east zone bench in Kolkata felt the matter requires consideration.
The bench of B Amit Sthalekar (judicial member) and Satyagopal Korlapati, (expert member) said: “Considering the allegations made, we deem it appropriate to constitute a fact-finding committee to visit the site in question and thereafter submit a report on affidavit within four weeks with regard to the allegations made in the application.”
The district magistrate of Balasore has been made the nodal officer for all logistic purposes and for filing the report on affidavit. The next hearing is scheduled to May 22.
The bench issued notices to state authorities concerned, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, OSPCB, CPCB, CGWB and promoters of the fish processing unit. Respondents have been directed to file counter-affidavits within four weeks.
The petitioner claimed that due to huge extraction of ground water by the fish processing unit, hundreds of small and medium bore wells which supply drinking water to around 2 lakh people residing in the gram panchayats, deep bore wells of the government used for agriculture and private small shallow tube wells have started drying up creating a water scarcity.
The Kantachira river is the only way to drain rain water of around 20 to 25 gram panchayats into the sea as there is no river or large creek from Soro to Remuna at a stretch of around 30 km.
Besides, rain water from the Sua Shari mountains in Soro to Swarnachuda mountains in Nilagiri passes through this river.
This is a catchment area encompassing densely populated Barunasing, Maharajpur, Kuligan, Srijung, Tundra, Inchudi and Rasalpur gram panchayats, the petition said.