TRAINING cum WORKSHOP on GREEN LAWS & COASTAL ENVIRONMENT Both Conservation of Wildlife and Protection of Livilihoods of Coastal Communities should go Hand in Hand

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 20^th

 

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 18^th and 19^th 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

E-MAIL- coastcouncilodisha@gmail.com