Recently, the State Forest Department has found that 58 acres of forest land of the Balukhand–Konark sanctuary have been grabbed by influential people of Puri in connivance with Revenue officials. It was first highlighted in a leading local daily.
This wildlife sanctuary was established in 1984. Its territorial expanse starts from Talabania village to Keluni Muhana of Astaranga village. The sanctuary comes under the sandy beach of the Bay of Bengal, where the entire ecological system is influenced by the sea.
The prominent flora of the area constitutes various kinds of grasses, casuarinas, tamarind, cashew, Karanj, Polanga and Neem tree species, besides bamboo grooves. Tal, coconut and screw pine etc and a number of creepers are also found. Similarly, the prominent fauna population comprises striped hyena, jungle cat, black buck, spotted deer, jackal, tortoise and various kinds of birds. The seabirds, which feed on fish, are also found in plenty.
The sanctuary is under two major threats like sand erosion and tide erosion. Prior to 1916, there was large scale sand erosion within the sea coasts of Puri and Konark greatly decimating its size. It destroyed the human habitations and rendered the cultivable lands unproductive. So, there was clamour by the public for a solution. The British administration then had undertaken regular plantations of casuarinas to protect the settlements. Subsequently, cashew plantations were taken up with the twin objectives of raising cash crop and protecting the villages from the threat of erosion. Screw pines also came as a big help to the local population in saving them from various natural disasters posed by the sea. With the passage of time, these lush green forests have undergone massive degradations with many indigenous species removed from the sea coasts and increasing their vulnerability to the sea threats. The State Government has been laying much stress on the promotion of tourism and hotel industries on the coasts over the years. As a result, many high-rises have come up on the sea coast by flouting the CRZ norms and posing environmental hazards.
A mad competition for land in the Puri-Konark zone has triggered land grabbing of private land, village commons and forest land. The Debotar land also has not escaped the voluptuous eyes of the grabbers. The writer as a former forest officer has come across rampant manipulations by the Revenue authorities in changing the types of land and leasing out of precious forest land to private land sharks.
One A-class reserve forests of Ghatagaon range in Keonjhar forest division was converted to B- class forest and then was leased out to private people by the revenue authorities, long back. It had created much hue and cry then. There are always masters in the revenue administration, who make foul, fair and fair, foul just for pecuniary benefits. The survey settlements in Mugalbandi areas are much more efficient than Gadjat or Zamindari areas of the British administration. The unscrupulous revenue officials always take advantage of the weakness of our system to manipulate things. Every sanctuary is an (A) class reserves forest, where simple entry without permission amounts a trespass and is liable to punishment under the provision of Orisha Forest Act 1972.
So the people involved in grabbing the forest land of the Puri- Konark sanctuary should be booked under the provision of law. Balukhand- Konark apart, several other areas like Mahanadi estuary in Paradip, Dangamal in the Bhitarkanika wildlife sanctuary, Dhamara estuary, Gopalpur estuary and Chandipur estuary etc are not free from encroachment and grabbing. It all happens for lapses by the law-enforcement authorities to bring the culprits to book.
The blackbuck which is on the verge of extinction in the State due to shrinking of its habitat is a cause of concern. like this antelope, there are a few other animal species which are also vanishing fast from the Balukhanda- Konark sanctuary. There is massive poaching of the animals due to rising of hotels within the sea beach areas. The increasing crowd, sound and light pollution have also led to death of many animals and birds in the coastal sanctuary. Further, there is a poor staffing pattern which completely fails to provide protection to the forest resources of the sanctuary.
Again, the State Forest department is becoming weaker by the day beset as it is with various kinds of problems. Particularly, staff crunch has helped poachers and wood smugglers to strike back at increasing frequency.
During the post independence period, there were regular annual verifications of boundary lines of each forest blocks of the State. Unfortunately, this is now a passé. The annual demarcations of forest blocks were done every year with verifications of boundary lines, where encroachment, if any, could easily come to the notice. As a result, quick steps were taken to evict the grabbers and initiate proceedings against them.
It is strange to find how the local Forest department of Puri could not know the grabbing of land of the sanctuary. Hence, the whole matter should go for a probe by the Crime Branch.
(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist. Tel no 9937460649)