Waiting To Submerge In Sea?
Climate’s first orphans:
The cases of three villages in Coastal Odisha
Many attributed the present crisis
of sea erosion to climate change. The sea shore which was off a
kilometer away twenty years back has now come closer to habitation. The
surging tidal waves are now touching the fishing hamlets and homes
almost daily in this monsoon. The cause may be plenty but the situations
remain the same. The question is—are we going to relocate the villages
and the villagers?
Government policies not inclusive
Yes! Relocation of villages have been
attempted several times but in vain. The government has neither any
definite plan to relocate and resettle the villagers nor is there any
plan to check sea-erosion, study the cause or way out. The World Bank
funded 227crore Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Plan which
talks about Erosion, Conservation, Eco-Tourism, Heritage Preservation,
Pollution Control and Livelihood Security but it has short of protection
policy for endangered coastal villages, except a plant to set up a
Geo-Synthetic Wall (700 meters long geo tube bundh) spending 19 crore in
Penth village near Rajnagar to check erosion.
Odisha government’s Draft Climate
Change Action Plan with a huge budget of Rs 17,000 crore seeks to help
industries more by reducing their expenditure on adapting to climate
change, while providing hardly any budget for the victims of climate
change at Saatabhaya. In the year 2005, Centre had included many
sea-side villages under another World Bank assisted National Cyclone
Risk Mitigation Programme (NCRMP).The idea was to build shelter belts to
save the seaside villages and towns from the onslaught of cyclones,
storms, tidal waves even tsunami etc. But yet there is no information on
how far these projects worked to the extent of protecting coastal
villages.
Odisha has never experienced any
such year where it does not have any natural disaster. So far as the
issue is concerned, one hundred disasters have been recorded in last 100
years. The state has been declared disaster affected for 95 times
within the 105 years. Frequent disaster in Odisha already killed 22,228
people from 1963 to 1999 many people and till date 34, 21,000 people
became homeless in Odisha left many children alone as orphan, disabled,
and missing. This will increase the vulnerability of children.
Odisha Government has already
installed radar in Paradeep with an investment of Rs 12 crore for
Tsunami and cyclone warning assessment with the aim of protecing life
and livelihood of human being as well as domestic animals. According to
govt sources several other projects are also in the pipeline and to be
installed in collaboration with Government of India. Notably among the
developments as has been claimed by the government is that the state is
now equipped with all technologies to enable us to evacuate at least two
lakhs of people within a span of 2/3 hours during any disaster waning.
At a time when industrialists are
queuing up to penetrate Odisha, nobody is concerned about the extreme
climatic condition of the state. Odisha has been experiencing the most
extreme climatic condition for a decade ranging from heat wave to
cyclone and from drought to flood.
Upcoming development projects in
terms of Ports, Steel Plants, SEZs, Jetties, Hotels and large Tourism
projects etc. have further worsened the woes of coastal habitations and
population. Development projects are good only when they engage with
communities and become beneficial for local population. Sometimes
unsustainable ways of planning and setting up projects without community
consents have paved the way for more conflicts and alienations. Such
has been the situation in Coastal areas. Thousands of coastal artisans,
salt workers, fishermen both marine and Chilika have left the area for
Surat, Mumbai, Kerala and Bengaluru etc in search of alternative job.
The situation further aggravated
following illegal land encroachment by prawn mafias and intervention of
non-fishermen in fishing activities, the conflict between conservation
and livelihood, surging sea and above all land acquisition for $12
billion POSCO Steel plant, Dhammara Port, Gopalpur Port, Dhamara Railway
line, Gopalpur Tata Steel Project etc. The Government of Odisha planned
to set up 12 more ports in coastal area besides the existing three
ports. These port projects are part of proposed 187 ports in the
Country. Environmentalists have expressed serious reservations about
these port proposals.
Starting from the northern coasts of
Odisha to the southern coasts, many villages have fallen victim to the
wrath of the ocean. Today a grim scenario has emerged the coastal
habitations are being continually eroded by the ravages of the sea.
Satabhaya
The villages most affected by the
climate change are the coastal villages in the district of Kendrapara.
The cluster of seven villages called Satabhaya is the live example.
Though within a decade five villages have been washed away in Satabhaya
area, government has done little to reduce the danger and ameliorate the
plight of the displaced communities. 1930 land records show an area of
320 sq km for the Satabhaya cluster near the port town of Paradip in
Odisha. The 2000 land records indicate that this area has been reduced
to 155 sq km with five of the seven villages being swallowed by the sea.
The first to vanish into the sea in the early 1980s were Govindpur,
Mahnipur and Kuanriora villages. Two more villages—Kharikula and Sarpada
were submerged in the mid-1990s.
On June 8, this year district
Collector and local MLA laid the foundation stone for Bijunagar, near
Bgapatia Vilage in Kendrapara, the resettlement colony to relocate 571
families of Satabhaya, who are living in constant fear and uncertainty.
Seven years back in 2004 Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also laid the
foundation stone and in the year 1991 his father late Biju Patnaik, the
then CM also laid the foundation stone.
“The government has been making
plans for the people of Satabhaya since 1977 but none of them has seen
the light of day. Skeptical about the government’s rehabilitation
measures, hundreds of families in the two remaining villages of
Satabhaya have now mored out to relatively safer places of their
choice,” says, Bikask Kumar Pati of RCDC.
Pati further added: “72 families
have settled down at Magarkanda and have named their new hamlet Atasala.
60 families from Satbhaya and 20 from the neighbouring Kanpur have
taken refuge under a mound near the Ekkakula mouth which now goes by the
name Balisahi.The newly established village of Barahipur near the
wheeler Island houses 45 erstwhile families of Satbhaya and Kanpur.”
Prafulla Nayak of Satabhya village
has been very critical on state government’s approach to the
rehabilitation of surviving people saying: “Only one out of seven
cluster villages has sustained the onslaught of the sea because of the
natural sand dunes.”
Gayadhar Dhal, a farmer leader too
alleged: “The lack of effective strategies by the state government has
multiplied their woes. Though, the government has provided 70 acrers of
land at Gupti during the tenure of Biju Patnaik-to rehabilitate
displaced families nothing has started yet.”
Nrusingha Sahu of the area argues, “That wide spread depletion of mangroves has resulted in severe coastal erosion.”
Podampeta
Eleven villages of Pallibandha gram
panchayat in Ganjam district have started experiencing the influence of
climate change in various ways. Nearly 200 households of Podampeta and
Gokharkuda village have disappeared from the original location. 400
meter beach have receded to 25 meter within a decade. Due to reverse
wind blowing, Salt production has come down to 50 per cent seriously
affecting the standard of living of the local population. Quantum and
variety of fish resources are demeaned to an all time low. Changes in
salinity and temperature of sea have such a tremendous impact on
available fish varieties that they have started migrating to the deeper
sea from the west side to the eastern coast, which had made life of
fishing community miserable.
Podampeta which was severely hit by
1999 Super Cyclone is still struggling to escape from the rising sea
level. At least 300 fishermen families are living with uncertain future.
Though district administration has decided to shift them to the nearby
Prayagi-Palur belt, finding no alternative livelihood most of them are
relenting to leave the habitation.
According to Tateya, a resident of
Podampeta village, “Earlier the fish catches which were within 1-2 kms
near the sea is now found beyond 15 kms off the coast, fish varieties
like Vekrty, Bengala, Ilishi, Ghee Chandi, Kani and Kokili are in
extinct or not available in plenty near shoreline.” He further added,
“Fishermen who were earning Rs. 100-500 per day are now opting for wage
labour outside the village.”
Rameyapatna
During the first week of July people of
the village were surprised to find themselves in water logged. Though
they have been in living with fear and uncertainty since 1999, they had
never imagined to witness such a huge flow of water inside the village.
Since the year 2003 Ramayapatna
village situated near Bahuda sea mouth under Kanishi Tahasil of Ganjam
district is witnessing tidal waves entering the village regularly.
Though, the village is located 500 meters away from the shoreline
because of the incessant rain and surging sea, they often have to take
shelter in cyclone shed. District administration has started the
resettlement process for these nearly one hundred residents who have
opted for relocation. Some of the villagers have submitted their family
details after their consultations with local tahasildar Mahendra Kumar
Panda. Government is planning to relocate them near Chandanbadi and has
assured them with government land, Indira Awas etc.
“Yes, government has asked us to
submit the list of family members by september 10, but the situation is
something different, villagers are not included in government welfare or
development schemes because of CRZ provisions and identity, then how
will we except full rehabilitation?” asked a villager.
By Sudarshan Chhotoray From Bhubaneswar
http://udayindia.in/2011/09/17/waiting-to-submerge-in-sea-climates-first-orphans-the-cases-of-three-villages-in-coastal-odisha/
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