The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued notices to the authorities on pollution and encroachment of land of a wetland in Jagadalpur village under Kukudakhandi tehsil of Ganjam district.
The wetland known as Keshaba Pond is one of the common ayacots and is a prime source of drinking water project for near about 200 families. The pond is capable for irrigating 400 acres of agriculture land throughout the year.
The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Division (RWS&S) of Brahmapur has installed three bore wells for the purpose of drinking water supply to Jagadalpur. The drinking water project is now running full fledged and 4,000 people are getting daily drinking water from it.
A builder, Datatraya Developers, has constructed a road towards its housing project site Raghunath Vihar and filling a portion of the water body to the west with 50 feet width and 400 meter length from south to north direction. During the time of road construction, it felled 30 old trees without prior permission from the Forest and Environment Department.
During the time of road construction inside the pond by the builder, the wetland was polluted by discharge of untreated wastes and effluents. The ecological character of the wetland and also the environment was affected.
The illegality of the builder was informed by the village people to the district Collector of Ganjam, Kukudakhandi Tehsildar and Divisional Forest Officer of Brahmapur, but in vain.
One Krushna Chandra Padhi filed a case before the National Green Tribunal, Eastern Zone bench, Kolkata in this matter. The tribunal's division bench comprising Justice Pratap Kumar Ray (Judicial member) and Prof Pramod Chandra Mishra (Expert member) heard the case and issued notice to the Chief Secretary of Odisha,
Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Forest and Environment Department, Member Secretary, Odisha State Pollution Control Board, Collector, Ganjam , Divisional Forest Officer, Brahmapur, MD, Datatraya Developersr to file their show cause and replies early.
The petitioner urged the court to take necessary steps to back the natural status of the pond, close the road, build a guard wall for safety measure of the natural pond, direct the builder to vacate the illegally occupied wetland, State Government officials to start cleanness drive of the natural pond, call for detail status/action taken report relating to the degradation of environment as well as ecological imbalance occurred in the surrounding area of the pond.