Moushumi Basu; The Pioneer; New Delhi Tuesday, November 2, 2010
The world’s largest nesting site of Olive Ridley sea turtles — at Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary in coastal Odisha — is under threat.
This turtle season — migration has started — may spell doom for these endangered creatures since their nesting beaches have eroded drastically, thanks to alleged illegal sand-dredging by Essar Steel Orissa Ltd (ESOL) at the mouth of Mahanadi river.
ESOL is setting up a steel pellet factory at Paradip, with an annual capacity of 6 million tonne, along with a captive power plant of 225 MW, at an investment of Rs 10,721 crore.
According to information obtained through an RTI application filed by environmentalist Biswajit Mohanty, the company was given environmental clearance on May 29, 2008. However, it suppressed material information by not disclosing that the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) was part of the total projected land requirement of 1,925 acres. The company managed to get away without even applying for CRZ clearance.
According to experts, portions of Mahanadi river, including the applicable shoreline lands, come under CRZ due to the tidal effect in these areas.
According to the RTI response, the company was fully aware that its project site was in CRZ. This has been revealed in its correspondence with Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) in December 2008. Even senior officers like the Secretary of Steel & Mines had directed the company to seek CRZ clearance in a review meeting this January.
Regardless of all this, ESOL has been dredging sand in the CRZ area of Mahanadi river. According to reports, at least 12,00,000 cubic metres have already been dredged.
The RTI response also showed that a site inspection was carried out as early as in 2008, by the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), when the company was found filling up the site with sand dredged from the Mahanadi. Nonetheless, neither the SPCB nor the Environment Department seem to have stopped ESOL.
The company also seems to have violated the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. The project requires a total of 18.83 hectares of forest land and ESOL has started work since 2008 on non-forest lands without obtaining forest clearance. (According to norms, it is mandatory to get forest clearance prior to undertaking any construction.)
The forest clearance diversion proposal and application was filed only in December 2009 with the State Government and is yet to be forwarded to Environment Ministry. Pipeline construction is almost complete in non-forest areas of Keonjhar and Jajpur districts, though there is no forest clearance.
Meanwhile, ESOL technical assistant to the director Smriti Ranjan Das claimed, “Dredging is being done with the approval of the State Water Resource Department.” On being questioned further on whether the company had made CRZ applications, he was evasive, saying the needful must have been done as, “I joined the company after 2007”.
The Olive Ridley is a Schedule I species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
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