The seacoast of Puri is gravely under threat from erosion as the sea n water level has been on the rise. It is also a threat to the temple town as a whole.
Not only the Puri coast, but the entire sea coast, right from Gopalpur to Digha, is subjected to sea erosion. But the most alarming situation is noticed in Puri, Rajkanika, Paradip, Chandipur and Digha. It is time we should go deep into the gravity of the problem and find a solution.
The excessive handling of the coast for commercial uses and other unscientific activities has given rise to the alarming situation. The sea-coast is a transitional zone of land mass and ocean which is always maintained by the nature itself. Excessive commercial exploitation of seascape and devastation of actual ecological systems of the regions should be blamed for this lurking danger.
The entire protected landscape and seascape of Odisha comes under the “Coastal Regulation Management Zone” and there are specific guidelines on the use of the sea coast. The whole 500 km of sea coast of Odisha is very sensitive. The biosphere of the region is not protected efficiently and scientifically.
If we take the matter of Puri seashore into account, the whole region right from Puri to Konark is a vast track of brine sands where sand dunes are formed by natural processes through sea wind. The sands are very loose soil. The natural eco-systems of these areas are very peculiar. Very limited plant species like screw pine, salt tolerant grasses and creepers come naturally and provide habitats to many residential lizards, herbivores, ground birds and reptiles etc. The casuarinas plantation was first started in Konark coast to protect the sea coast. Subsequently, tropical American tree, cashew-nut, was widely planted in the coast to prevent the coastal erosions. These two species are proved very successful and provide home to a large number of animals and birds for their sustainable accommodations.
Now, the casuarinas trees are catering to largely fuel requirement of Puri while cashew nut is not seen in the sea coast of Odisha any more, although these two species were once very successfully grown in the modified eco-systems of the region.
According to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climatic Change, the ecologically sensitive areas of the coastal zone play an important role in maintaining the “functional integrity” of the coast, including acting as natural barriers to coastal hazards and harbouring diverse biodiversities that provide valuable resources to the local communities. Hence, the Puri- Konark coast itself is an area belonging to the ecologically sensitive areas and performs the “functional integrity” of the sea coast for stabilization of brine sand dunes.
The entire sea coasts of India are categorically divided into four Coastal Regulation Management Zones according to the functional integrity of the marine eco-systems. The Coastal Management Zone consists of areas designated as ecologically sensitive areas such as mangroves, coral reefs, sand beaches, sand dunes, mudflats and marine wildlife. These are protected areas under the Wildlife (protection) Act 1972.
If we take the case of Puri-Konark coast, it comes under the very sensitive zone and falls under the categories of sand beaches and sand dunes, marine wild life protected areas, coastal fresh water bodies, horseshoe crabs habitats, sea grass beds, sea weed beds, and nesting grounds of birds, lizards and reptiles. So these are protected areas.
However, the coastal fresh water sources like different natural water bodies, creeks and rivulets, which were draining into the Bay of Bengal are now encroached for commercial activities destabilising the sand dunes of the coast which provides ample opportunity to the sea waves to erode the land mass. The Puri coast is subjected to excessive commercial activities and human interferences.
In the ocean, the high tide is not new and it is always created due to low pressure belt in the oceanic bodies and during the periods of full moon and new moon days. The gravity of low pressure belt is also occasioned due to pollution of ocean and the rising of atmospheric temperature.
During the fifties, large scale casuarinas trees perished in the sea coast of Puri and the ecosystem was sharply degraded for unknown reasons. It was subsequently found that due to formation of silica pan in the sub-stratum of the sea coast, the moisture supply to the plant communities was hindered, which resulted in the mass destruction of the casuarinas forest. The ecological process of oceanic biosphere became sick, but subsequently, the situation was offset by the nature itself and even now the casuarinas forests are flourishing well.
So the sensitive eco-systems should be carefully handed by us. Such disastrous eco-systems like Puri-Konark coast, including other parts of sea coast of Odisha, should be treated as protected areas by the State Government without delay. There must be a detailed survey and demarcation of the areas and these zones should be treated as zones of no-interference. The Puri coast should be handled through geo-textile engineering.