Press Note: Sea Turtle Nesting Beaches At Gahirmata Eroded By Illegal Dredging In Mahanadi River By Steel Company

Turtle lovers the world over are aghast as to how the state government could turn a silent spectator and allow the world's largest sea turtle nesting site to be destroyed in this manner. Spurred by conniving officials of  the state government, yet another big company (after Vedanta, Posco and Jindal Steel) has been found to  be violating forest and environment laws in Orissa.  In the recent past, several enquiry committees sent by the Central Government have indicted state officials for closing their eyes to  blatant violations of forest and environment laws. 

Information obtained under the RTI law has revealed how officers of the Pollution Control Board and Environment Department have failed to discharge their statutory duties to protect the state's coastal environment. Essar Steel Orissa Ltd (ESOL)is setting up a steel pellet factory at Paradip,Orissa with an annual  capacity of 6 million tones alongwith a captive power plant of 225 MW at a project cost of Rs.10,721 crores over a total land area of 1,925 acres. The factory shall be supplied iron ore in slurry form by a pipeline from Keonjhar district which shall pass through both forest and non-forest areas.  

      

ESOL  was accorded environmental clearance on 29th May, 2008. The Company had concealed material information while obtaining Environment Clearance since  it never disclosed that Coastal Regulation Zone(CRZ) areas were involved.  ESOL has been dredging sand in CRZ area of Mahanadi river but has failed to apply for CRZ clearance. A site inspection as early in 2008 by Pollution Control Board revealed that the company was filling up the site with sand dredged from river Mahanadi .  

As there is tidal effect in these areas, this portion of Mahanadi river including the applicable shoreline lands are CRZ areas. The Company was fully aware that its project site was in CRZ area which is revealed by correspondence with IDCO in December,2008. Even senior officers like the Secretary of Steel and Mines in a review meeting in January, 2010 had directed the company to seek CRZ clearance.

As per local reports , at least 12,00,000 cum of sand has been dredged from the river. Two dredgers were engaged by the Company to excavate sand from Mahanadi to  fill up the site. Mahanadi river washes down a huge quantity of sediment during monsoons, which is critical to the beach building process on the turtle nesting  beaches of the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary.
 

As the ocean currents flow for eight months of a year in a northward direction, such sediment load flushed out from the Mahanadi mouth is deposited on the shores of the marine sanctuary which lies to north of the river mouth. These soft sediment beaches are prime turtle nesting areas.  However since the last two years, there has been unprecedented erosion of the coastline, north of river Mahanadi a, Ekakula Pentha and Agarnasi areas all known sea turtle mass nesting sites. This can be correlated to the excavation and removal of sand from the river bed as a result of which the beach building process was abruptly arrested leading to loss of turtle nesting areas. Thus the Company's irresponsible dredging activity has destroyed the nesting areas of the Olive Ridley which is a schedule I species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act,1972.

               
Ironically, the state government shall spend Rs.227 crores on the Integrated Coastal Zone Managment Project funded by the World Bank to protect the coastline from erosion and conserve nesting beaches of Olive Ridleys!
 

The Company has also violated the Forest (Conservation) Act,1980. A total of 18.83 hectares of forest land is required. The company has illegally started work since 2008, on non-forest lands without obtaining forest clearance which is illegal. The forest clearance diversion proposal and application was filed only in December,2009 with the state government  and is yet to be forwarded to MOEF. Similarly, the pipeline construction is almost complete in the non forest areas of  Keonjhar and Jajpur district though there is no forest clearance . The forest department is aware of these violations but has failed to stop their illegal work.

The Wildlife Society of Orissa has demanded that the MOEF should immediately keep in abeyance the environmental clearance granted to the Company in May,2008 since such clearance was illegally obtained  by concealing the fact that the area is a CRZ area. 

MOEF should also issue stop orders to the company till the enquiry into violations of CRZ rules, Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and the Environment Protection Act,1986, the Wildlife (Protection )Act,1972  and rules, guidelines is complete. The company should be ordered to refill the sand illegally dredged from river Mahanadi so that the turtle nesting beaches of Gahiramtha can be restored.

The MOEF should also prosecute the state government officers who connived with the Company and failed to enforce the CRZ regulations and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 provisions. 

Biswajit Mohanty, Secretary, Cuttack

Dated: November 1, 2010

Mobile: 9437024265