CHENNAI: A permanent structure is being constructed on the ecologically-sensitive salt pans of Pulicat bird sanctuary after Ponneri revenue officials had allegedly issued a patta document for 2.45 hectares of land inside the sanctuary.
The area in question comes under survey number 55 which was classified as coastal poramboke land in the revenue records till 2021 when it was divided into two subdivisions. While land area under 55/1 is still a coastal poramboke, patta has been issued to a private individual for land under 55/2 subdivision, sources said.
When TNIE visited the place, it was evident that the building was coming up in the middle of a flood channel that had dried up for the time being due to intense summer heat. During rainy days, the place would usually be filled with water from surface runoff. There are no other constructions in the vicinity.
‘CZMP draft by Anna univ had marked it as waterbody’
The patta document, a copy of which is available with TNIE, was issued in favour of Magimai Raj, a resident of Pazhaverkadu village. When the construction work started, district forest officials objected to it, but they gave up their opposition later.
Except for traditional fishermen who were issued pattas before 1980 when Pulicat bird sanctuary was notified, no one is permitted to build anything, especially commercial property, inside the sanctuary area without obtaining permission from the National Board for Wildlife. The project should be appraised at district-level, then by the State Board for Wildlife and finally by the NBWLwl. None of this seems to have been followed in present.
K Saravanan, fishermen leader and an expert in coastal zone mapping, told TNIE the illegality was the direct result of improper Coastal Zone Management Plan prepared by National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management, which was approved in 2018. “While Anna University’s Institute of Remote Sensing draft CZMP clearly marked the survey number 55 as waterbody, the NCSCM has omitted it from the CRZ area, which was probably used by this individual to obtain the patta.”
Saravanan, who challenged these incomplete maps before the National Green Tribunal, said Tamil Nadu Coastal Zone Management Authority had accepted that there were some discrepancies in CZMPs and released them afresh. But the revised CZMPs, too, had flaws. So, the southern bench of NGT stayed the public hearings in all the coastal districts. “Now, a fresh revision is being done,” he said.
When contacted, Environment Secretary Supriya Sahu and Chief Wildlife Warden Srinivas R Reddy told TNIE, “The matter would be investigated immediately.”
In 2015, the Madras High Court dismissed a petition filed by Kolathur residents and called them encroachers even though they were given pattas on reclassified land in Kolathur lake. Courts have time and again held that no encroachment should be allowed in waterbodies.
2.45 ha Patta issued for 2.45ha of land inside sanctuary