Development news of orissa and India

Rajesh Kumar Behera, Kendrapara, Orissa

The villagers of Ganihanmuhan under Barimula Gram panchayat , on Wednesday night , retrieved a 3 feet-long fishing cat at Kendrapada-Indupur road ,which was laying dead on the road ,later the villagers took the endangered dead animal to the village , said forest official sources. According to Uttam Kumar Nayak, a local , while some youths of his village ,including him, were returned to their village on last night at about 11 pm after participating a soft ball floodlight cricket tournament held at Kendrapada town, they came across the wild animal laying dead on the Kendrapada-Indupur road .Believing that the dead animal was a leopard , out of curiosity they took the dead animal to their village .

On Thursday morning , hundreds of locals and the adjoining villagers visited the Ganiamuhan village to see the rare and endangered animal. The locals later informed the matter to the DFO of Cuttack division, as the dead animal was retrieved from the jurisdiction of Cuttack Forest Division. The forest officials of Kendrapada Forest Division ,later, paid a visit and took possession of the fishing cat after the DFO of Cuttack asked the local forest officials to seize the dead fishing cat in order to conduct an autopsy in the local Veterinary office .Later, the autopsy of the fishing cat was held in the local veterinary office at Kendrapara, said Debendra Bai, the Forester of Kendrapada Forest Division. According to Forester , the reason is suspected to be the giant fishing cat might have been died after it was rammed with a speeding truck at the Kendrapada-Indupur road . According to Debendra Bai , the current status of the fishing cat Included in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and in Appendix II of CITES. Designated as “vulnerable” in the Red Data Book. Their number in the state is declining due to killing and habitat loss. The Bhitaknaika National park is the home of about hundreds of fishing cat as it provides congenial atmosphere for the species .The recent sight of the dead fishing cat is said to be a big fishing cat . Of the 11 species of small cats in India, six species are known to occur in Orissa. Each sanctuary has one or more species of small cats. BhitarkanikaNational park has three species of small cats each, namely the Leopard cat, Fishing cat and Jungle cat.. The fishing cat is strongly associated with wetlands. It is typically found in swamps and marshy areas, oxbow lakes, reed beds, tidal creeks and mangrove areas.Young fishing cats become independent at the age of 10 months.The fishing cat lives an average of 12 years, but it has been known to live more than 15 years in captivity, said Bai . Fish are the most frequent prey of the fishing cat. Other water-associated prey include crabs, molluscs, and frogs. The fishing cat also feeds rats, civets, fawns, wild pigs, goats, calves and dogs,snakes, lizards ,skinks and birds. The fishing cat is a nocturnal hunter. It is very much at home in the water. It is a strong swimmer, even in deep water, and it can swim long distances. The fishing cat has been observed to dive into water after fish, as well as to crouch on a rock or sandbank near the water and swat the fish out onto dry land with its paw. It has even been seen to catch waterfowl by swimming up to them while fully submerged and seizing their legs from underneath,said official sources Wetland destruction is the primary threat faced by the fishing cat. Causes of this destruction include human settlement, draining for agriculture, construction of aquaculture facilities, and wood-cutting. High use of pesticides in rice fields and fishponds results in adverse impacts, since the harmful chemical residues can enter aquatic food chains and affect top predators such as the fishing cat. Destructive fishing practices have also greatly reduced the fishing cat’s main prey base. The fishing cat is hunted because it is considered edible and its skin is still valued by the fur trade, said Bai, the Forester.

Rajesh Kumar Behera, Kendrapada, Orissa

Though 24 hours have already passed to the attack of  Dalits by the upper caste people of Kandiapatana Jenasahi,but panic still struck on the face of the Dalits. Broken doors , damaged scooter , bicycle and other  house hold items which were thrown out of the ransacked houses by the upper caste people on Thursday  , were  still laying  in front of the Dalits’ houses . All the stored grains ,which were in the houses of the Dalits ,were scattered in and outside the house  by forcing the Dalits to fend for themselves in the coming days. Still tear rolls on the cheeks  of the Dalits who were assaulted and got injured in the hands of upper caste fellow villagers.

Tension continues to pervade the whole atmosphere in the village and the male persons of  Dalit communities are yet to return to the village following a fear is looming on them that if they will return to the village then they might have not become a target in the hand of upper caste people . Though armed police with lathis yielding in their hands have been guarding the village ,but the last afternoon mayhem of the upper caste has yet to be wiped out from their mind,informed Renubala Jena.

On the otherhand , the upper caste people of Karandiapatana  village have fled from the village and hiding themselves in adjoining villages to evade arrest .

According to SP of Kendrapada , Narasingha Bhola, on Friday police have arrested three persons from Raghunathpur village following their alleged involvement in assaulting the Dalits of Jenasahi and ransacking the Dalits houses .

The arrested persons have been identified as Ratnakar Behera(45), Rabindra Behera(50) and Arjuna Behera (20) of Raghunathpur village .All the arrested trio persons were from upper caste community .

Police on Friday produced the trio arrested persons before the SDJM court of Kendrapada under Section 147, 14,452,323,294,324,506,354,307,342,429,427,379 and 149 of IPC: 3 SC & ST Prevention of Atrocity Act. All the three arrested persons were remanded into jail custody after their bail petitions were rejected, informed IIC of Patkura Police Station , Aloka Roy.

Meanwhile , the District Administration , on Friday , provided cooked meal for four days to the victim Dalit  families .

Notably, Palpable tension erupted on Thursday afternoon at Karandiapatana Jenasahi village under Mehendipur Gram Panchayat under Marshaghai block of Kendrapada district following the uppercaste fellow villagers allegedly assaulted the upper caste villagers by forcibly entering into their houses after an altercation erupted between the community members following the Dalits opposed the upper caste people for digging of earth from a gochar land for the purpose of construction of Hanuman temple in the village.

The terror of the upper caste has gone to such an extent that as many as 23 Dalits sustained injuries, including 5 persons critically, following the upper caste people assaulted the Dalits with lathis ,sharp weapons ,and by pelting bricks. The upper caste people also ransacked as many as 33 houses of the Dalits by destroying the household items after throwing the items to the outside .whereas two vehicles were destroyed , more than a dozen of cycles also damaged   and two goats were killed by the uppercaste people in the mayhem,alleged the victimized injured Dalits.

Meanwhile, a platoon of police were deployed in the village in order to avert any untoward incident .

Bhubaneswar, India

India media centre has been organized DAYA MAHOTSAVA, a cultural Festival since 2006. Many eminent artists of the state have performed their art on this stage. By the support of locals and various artist groups, IMC have  organized this Festival successfully for last four consecutive years at Indira Maidan, Pipili, Puri, Orissa.  This year IMC is going to celebrate this occasion again by organizing 5^th DAYA MAHOTSAV at Indira Maidan, Pipili from 21^st Feb. to 23^rd Feb. 2010. This year some Government Cultural agency are extended their support to this extravaganza. Orissa High Court Justice would inaugurae the festival.

Rajesh Kumar Behera in Kendrapada, Orissa

The district unit of a saffron outfit ‘ Vishwa Hindu Parisada’ (VHP), on Tuesday , organized a press conference at Budhi bulasuni temple premises and demanded before the district administration to restore a religious place and a century old sun clock ,situated at Old Bus stand from encroachers who were illegally converted the place of worship and the monumental  land  by constructing urinals and keeping sand ,chips for construction.

Addressing to media,  Manmatha Nath Sahoo .the District Secretary of VHP stated that some persons from a particular community allegedly encroached the religious place by erecting latrine near the Hindu religious place and also they stored  bricks ,chips and sand for construction purpose .

According to Sahoo,  as per the history ,the religious place, which is located near old bus stand , was the bijesthali of Lord Baladev before the lord was taken to Ichhapur  . But the  Baladevjew temple  was demolished 300 years back  by a Mogul ruler  and a mosque was erected by the said Mogul ruler . Even , in past years some remnants of  Hindu temple were also unearthed from the said place.

Even sahoo informed that the place was also the bijesthali of Lord Garveshwar Mahadev alias Gariba mahadev ,which had a documentary evidence in the khatiyan of 1911. Some years back, the Hindus had come to worship the Gariba mahadev. Later, in 1980  settlement ,the said religious place was converted into government land .

But now ,a particular community members allegedly by encroaching the said Hindu religious place have stored brick ,chips ,sand and also want to erect permanent structure which would create communal frenzy by losing brotherhood among the two religious community .  

Notably, in 1984 , the district administration put barbed wire around the said religious place and sun clock after two communities clashed with each other claiming the lands as their properties. But recently some persons belonging to a particular community illegally damaged the barbed wire and built some shops and latrines on this land alleged VHP activists .

“So, on Tuesday , we the VHP activists and the District  Hindu Samaj demanded before the district administration  to evict all the encroachers from the place and also from the monumental sun clock. Else ,the VHP will demonstrate in front of the collectors office if the authority will not evict all the encroachers in the coming future “ , said Manmanth Nath Sahoo the general secretary of district unit of VHP.

According to Baidyanath Chatarjee , an intellect ,the sun clock is the perfect replica of the old Kendrapada ornate. Unfortunately, nothing much remains of it today. Recently some persons illegally constructed shops around the sun clock. The vagaries of time, coupled with a callous administration has turned the monument into a heap of garbage. The sun clock is of much archaeological importance and it needs as much preservation by the district administration..

When contacted the Sub collector of Kendrapada ,Ranjan Kumar Dash, stated that he has received a petition from the VHP activists in this regard  on Tuesday  The sub collector , Ranjan Kumar  Dash , the IIC of Kendrapada town police station, Ramesh Sethy, and several senior officials visited the disputed land and  started the demarcation  work in  the place by directing  the local municipality and tehsil staff .  

The district administration  will take necessary steps to evict all the encroachers  very shortly and the authority will protect the century old sun dial at Kendrapada, added Ranjan Kumar Dash , the sub collector .

Keeping in mind that Kendrapada is a much communal sensitive district ,  security has been beefed up at the sun clock and its nearby areas to prevent any law and order situation

Salinity ingress has spread its tentacles  far and wide on the seaside  areas of Kendrapada  district, engulfing several villages by making the life of the inhabitants  miserable.

The water in almost all the wells has become totally saline and nearly 1.10 lakh acres of agricultural land has become redundant, forcing thousands of farmers of Mahakalapada and Rajnagar blocks   to flee for  greener pastures. The gravity of the situation can also be gauged from the fact that many seaside villagers  are selling their lands at a throw away prices to some prawn mafias.

When  the first salinity ingress was noticed in 1970s ,the phenomenon was common only among the villages close to the sea coast. Gradually, it penetrated into a belt of up to five to seven km  from the coast. At that time salinity ingress was attributed to imbalance between the availability of ground water  and its disproportionate use. It was also found that the coastal areas  were a vulnerable track for the ingress of salinity due to rampant illegal felling of mangrove forest and excess use of groundwater through tube-wells and wells. Besides the seaside areas are prone to ingress of sea water during the each high tide periods.

A preliminary survey by the state government, nine years back, revealed that the presence of salt content in ground water was beyond the acceptable limit in 82 villages.

To check the ingress of the sea water into the seaside areas the government had constructed saline embankments in both the districts in 1970s but  due to lack of proper maintenance and rampant irregularities in the repair works of the saline embankments major portions of the embankments  are on the verge of collapse . During each high tide period and cyclonic weather the sea water engulf large tracts of the lands in the seaside villages.

“Large number of farmers have stopped paddy cultivation since more than a decade near the seaside lands within one kilo meter from the Bay of Bengal. Farmers of distant places from the sea may soon have to stop paddy cultivation in favour of crops consuming less water but giving less financial output. In many villages, the ground water level has sunk so low as 400 feet, making it difficult for the farmers to install and operate water pumps for irrigation”, said Banamali Rout ,a resident of Okilapala

Reckless exploitation of the ground water resource and non-function of about 200 Lift Irrigation points in these areas have sealed the fate of the large number of farmers.

As a consequence of the receding water table, the farmers have been forced to further dig the existing tube wells which at places have reached a depth of over 400 feet. In such deep tube wells , they have to install powerful pump sets  to draw water as a result the salinity level in the ground water level is rapidly increasing, added Nirnajan Sahu, a farmer.

Further going down the surface in quest of water has over the years become hazardous and caused loss of money for many farmers. Many farmers were ruined after spending more money to irrigate their agricultural land by using motors,alleged Gayadhar Dhal, the secretary of District Krushak Sabha .

Notably,in 1960s the coastal belts of Kendrapada and Jagatasinghpur areas of  Orissa  were covered with mangrove vegetation but in the end of the 1960s the state government had denuded large areas of mangrove forest in Paradeep areas to construct a port at Paradeep. The government had also cleared  hundreds of acres of mangrove forest in coastal belts of Kendrapada and Jagatasinghpur districts to settle  hundreds of refugees from Bangladesh in 1970s.

Mangrove forests are the natural barriers to prevent soil erosion and ingress of saline water into the coastal areas and due to excessive damage of the mangrove vegetation ,the seaside villagers have been facing salinity ingress problems. Many villagers of the seaside areas walk two to three km to bring drinking water as the salinity water  is not  fit to drink.

The state government had started a Saline Water Purifying  project a decade back at Mahakalapada to provide  drinking water to  about 45 coastal villages  after purifying the saline water. The state government had also started a regeneration of mangrove project in the coastal. Thanks to the slipshod attitude of the government ,the salinity phenomenon is found to be spreading  to more coastal areas.

The shrimp mafias  are being benefited due to ingress of saline water into the seaside areas  as they have been purchasing hundreds of acres of sea coast land from the hapless villagers and converting the lands into prawn farms.

According to District Magistrate of Kendrapada , Sisirkanta Panda, the district administration recently chalked out plans to provide drinking water by water tankers to the seaside villagers ,where potable water scarcity  generally becomes acute in summer, and all the illegal prawn farms will be demolished shortly.