TRAINING
cum WORKSHOP on GREEN LAWS & COASTAL ENVIRONMENT
Both Conservation of
Wildlife and Protection of Livilihoods of Coastal Communities should go Hand in
Hand
Bhubaneswar,
September 20th
Despite best efforts of
coastal communities like traditional marine fishermen, Chilika fishermen, salt
workers, farmers and artisan communities due to manmade interventions and
environmentally unsustainable development projects besides impact of extreme
weather conditions caused by Climate Change-have changed the landscape of
482kms long Odisha Coastline. In other hand, when communities are struggling to
restore their lost livelihood over exploitation of natural resources in terms
of Industrial Projects, Hotel & Tourism projects, Commercial Aquaculture,
Sand Mining, Roads & Buildings, Hatcheries, Fishing by outside Trawlers and
Mechanized Boats, expansion of existing Ports and upcoming Ports all these
above have threatened the fragile Environment & Ecosystem services of
coastal areas. Moreover, the ongoing debate over conservation of wildlife
vis-à-vis livelihood protection of coastal communities especially fishermen has
also added fresh impetus to the ever-existing conflict in this region.
Coast
Council Odisha and EIA Response & Resource Centre New Delhi
Jointly organized a training programme on Coastal Environment and Green Laws on
18th and 19th September 2014 at CYSD in Bhubaneswar. The
meeting was attended by 70 participants from 8 coastal districts. There was
discussion and deliberation on environmental and forest clearance mechanism,
scope of National Green Tribunal in addressing emerging environmental issues in
coastal areas of Odisha.
A serious concern
raised about the proposed 15 ports planned along the 482 km of Odisha Coast
line. The participants from Paradip, Dhamra
and Gopalpur Port areas besides upcoming ports like Astarang have echoed that
the existing pollution by the ports and dredging activity are threatening
marine flora & fauna and in particular the Olive Ridley Turtles. Olive
Rydle Turtles are the signature of the state and heritage of our coastline.
People from Balesore district and Rushikulya River Mouth had expressed their
anguish over the mushrooming of acqua culture firms along the coastline
violating the Costal Regulation Zone notification (CRZ) and discharging the
untreated waste water directly to the sea. In recent past the coast has
witnessed serious oil spillages in Paradip and Gopalpur area threatening the
delicate marine faunas. There has been sharp decline in Ilishi (Hilsa) Fish in
Coast line, shared by the traditional fishermen from Paradip coast.
The Training cum
Workshop was jointly moderated by Sudarshan Chhotray, Convenor, Coast
Council and Shankar Prasad Pani, East Zone Representative of New Delhi
based ERC.
In his opening remark Ambika Nanda, State Representative UNDP
argued on the need of community participation and awareness which would
contribute significantly for community based conservation efforts.
Prominent among the
speakers were Pranav C.Chaudhury of Baitarani Initiative, Tapan
K Padhi of East Zone Water Partnership, Dr Jayakrushna Panigrahy
of Odisha Environment Society, Kailash Ch. Das, Director RCDC, Mangaraj
Panda, Convenor OMRCC and Secretary UAA, Ms. Binapani Mishra,
Secretary SWAD and Convenor Coast Council, Puri, Naresh Jena, Advocate, Odisha
High Court, Prassan Behera, Vice-President, OTFWU spoke on various aspects
of Environmental issues, Climate Change and Coastal Ecology and Ecosystem.
Apart from these, the workshop also discussed on
Environment
(Protection) Act, 1986, Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, Wildlife (Protection)
Act, 1972, the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, the Air
(Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 besides provisions of CRZ
Notification, OMFRA, and National Green Tribunal etc.
While discussing about
the implementation of CRZ in Odisha, Mr Jagannath Bastia of Beach
Protection Committee, Puri, described it as a sham. Not even a single hotel is
closed down even though the hotels are directly discharging their untreated waste
water to the sea. He has termed the demand of hotel association to discharge
The only Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) their only STP managed by Public Health
Department as rubbish because the waste water from hotels are having high
Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and the only STP managed by the Public Health
Department do not have the capacity to treat water from hundreds of hotels. He
demanded that each hotel industry must be asked to set up their own STP and
till then the hotels must be closed completely. He has also questioned the
seriousness of Sate Coastal Zone Management Committee which hardly meets and
even if the meeting takes place the committee does not take cognizance of CRZ
violations
The Synthetic wall
which is now being constructed in Pentha in Kendrapara area under ICZM Project to
check the sea erosion is a wrong idea and this has been seriously failed in
other states and countries and this project should be immediately scrapped.
Instead of that, the bio-shield should be promoted along the coast by the
planting the mangrove and other species which can resist the storms and act as
a soil binder.
Villagers of Podampeta
in Ganjam who are facing the wrath of Sea Erosion had said that out of 350
families in the village Govt. has shifted only 150 families that to without
basic amenities and livelihood security.
Odisha Traditional Fish
Workers Union(OTFWU), questioned the
policy of state government in preventing the fishermen for six months from
fishing in Devi and Rushikulya river mouths areas also near Bhitarakanika
Sanctuary without providing appropriate compensation package and subsistence allowance.
Presently the fishermen communities are forced to leave their old age and
traditional way of living and migrating to other states in search of job because
of the restriction imposed by forest department without providing any
alternative livelihood.
The
meeting also discussed the intention of the new government in centre by
diluting the environment norms in the name of investment and constituting a
high level committee to review the environment laws. It was demanded that the existing circular
mandating to seek consent of Gramsabha for diversion of forest land should be
incorporated in Forest Conservation Act 1980, so that it can be saved from the
executive interference as it has now witnessed in linear project those are exempted
from seeking consent of Gramsabha. It was decided to submit a details
memorandum to HLC constituted by Union Govt on violations of Environmental Laws
and proposed amendments like fixing penal provisions and accountability besides
identifying cases to pursue with National Green Tribunal.
Among others Ashish Senapaty, Sr. Journalist, Convenor
Coast Council, Kendrapara, Asim
Mahapatra, Director, Programmee Serviices, RCDC, Pradip
Patnaik,Co-Convenor, Coast Council, Khurdha and Anchor-Odisha Mobile Vani, Utkal Ranjan Mohanty,Convenor,Coast
Council,Jagatsinghpur, Dr. Manohar
Chauhan,CSD, Ms. Pushpanjali
Satpathy, Vasundhara, Ms. Sukanti
Parida, Directror-CIDR Balesore & Co-Convenor-Coast Council, Balesore, Rabi Tripathy,Welcomes and Smruti
Ranjan Mohanty, Srujanee Jagatsinghpur,
spoke on how to protect the fragile ecosystem of Odisha coast.
Community Representatives who took part in discussion were
Ch,Balaji of PEORPC, Podampeta, Ananta Mallick, Traditional Marine
Fishermen Association Balesore,Rabindra
Nath Sahu of Rushikulya Turtle Protection Committe, Bichitrananda Biswal of Astaranga Turtle Protection Group,
Kendrapara.Ms Bimati Samal,Balesore,,
Ms. Mita Panda, Puri,, Ms. Minati Sahu, Jagatsinghpur, Mohanty, Konark,Kusa Kumar Behera,Ganjam,Hemanta
Kumar Dora and Abinas Das,Jajpur,Manoranjan
Mondal, Kendrapara,Sanjaya Kumar
Malik,Bhadrak, A.Kamesh,Sana
Noliagaon,Rakhal Charan Das, Parivartan
Project,Balikuda and Prassana Dash
of Chilika Environmental Group.
COAST COUNCIL is
a civil society network of individuals and organizations spread across all the
ten coastal districts of Odisha. The organization has pledged to work on
livelihood protection of coastal artisans and communities, protection and
preservation of natural resources; besides Climate change concerns and Disaster
Risk Reductions. Protection of environment/ecology in fragile coastal region
and equipping communities on CCA & DRR are the area of interventions of the
organization. The organization believes both protections of livelihood of
communities and wildlife conservation, preservation of our cultural heritages
should go hand in hand.
eRc is a Resource and Response Centre that keeps a watch on
the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) processes and ensures that the impact
of developmental activities on India's Environment and Communities is properly
accessed and accounted for. The Environment Impact Assessment Resources &
Response Centre was established in the year 2007, in response to the felt need
to keep a watch, as well as to challenge, Environment Impact Assessment-EIA
reports which are based on inadequate and improper assessment of the impacts of
proposed developmental activities on natural resources of India including, wild
flora and fauna, rivers, wetlands etc.
Sudarshan
Chhotray
Convenor
COAST COUNCIL
09337111879
