Development news of orissa and India

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.

Over last four years the sharp shrinkage of the world’s largest rookery of Olive Ridleys sea turtles, has made the wildlife lovers and environmentalists a cloud of anxiousness and uncertainty over the prospects of nesting of these innocent species this time.

Significantly these endangered marine species, accorded threatened status like tiger as per schedule-I of Indian Wildlife(Protection)Act,1972 (amended 1991)  and  the sea turtles are protected under the ‘migratory species convention’ and CITES(convention of International Trade on Wildlife Flora and Fauna), had moved quickly to their annual sojourn in order to lay eggs on the sandy beach at Gahirmatha, said official sources .

However, the peaceful environment of the sandy beach considered to be the most favourite and congenial place for “Arribada”(a Spanish term for  mass nesting phenomenon), which was undergoing rapid topographical changes over last  some  years. And the beach has become a matter of worry for the conservationists and as well as the environmentalists raising a fear that the turtles may get distracted by the broken nesting  sites, said Kishore Swain ,a wildlife lover and environmentalist.

Official sources said that once the 15 km stretched beach, one of the largest nesting ground in the world on the east coast of Bay of Bengal , has been reduced to more than half of its earlier shape following massive sea erosion.

According to the Rajnagar Mangrove Forest division official sources, the rookery which is situated at Gahirmatha beach mostly parts of Nasi-I, Nasi-II, Ekakulanasi and Babubali isles plays  a favourite nesting place to marine species.

The nesting grounds mainly at Nasi-I and Nasi-II have shrunk most of its parts. Nasi –I is now reduced to 2.1 km long. But the fact of worry is that it is divided into at least three short parts, over the last four years, said  Swain.

Apart from the sea erosion, the violent tidal waves caused breaches, changing the geographical character of the scenic island and affecting the space of turtle habitat. On the other hand, the Nasi –I island , which is stretched 3km , is less affected  by the sea erosion . More  than the parts of the Nasi –II has got stretched  out almost touching Babubali island, said forest official sources.

In a bizarre incident , a septuagenarian bigamist under Derabish Police limit of Kendrapara district ,in a fit of rage ,allegedly attacked his son and his daughter-in-law with a chopper ,on Friday, resulting the death of his daughter-in-law after a family feud erupted between the bigamist father and son. According to Mrutyunjaya Swain,.the IIC of Derabish Police Station, a bigamist , Panu Behera , 77 years , of Fakirabad village under Chatara chakoda Gram Panchayat in Derabish police station ,on Friday , allegedly attacked his elder son , chakradhar Behera, and his daughter-in-law, Rina Behera, the spouse of Chakradhar, with a chopper by injuring them critically after a feud erupted between Chakradhar and his septuagenarian father ,Panu Behera for a silly matter.Later , the duo injured husband and wife were rushed to the local Chhata PHC ,on Friday , with the help of villagers. But as their health conditions were deteriorated ,the doctor referred the injureds to SCB medical college and hospital at Cuttack ,where Rina Behera, the spouse of Chakradhar succumbed to her cut injuries and chakradhar is struggling with his life in the hospital bed at SCB. The deceased Rina Behera was survived with her husband and three children ,including two girls and a son, who were between the age group of 2-8 years ,added the IIC of Derabish. The deceased Rina Behera’s father Dhoya Patra on Friday night lodged an FIR against his deceased’s daughter father-in-law at Derabish police station. Police ,on Sunday , seized the chopper and arrested the septuagenarian bigamist from his house . Later, the arrested septuagenarian produced before the SDJM court of Kendrapada under Section 302 and 307 of IPC where he remanded into jail custody after his bail petition was rejected in the court,stated Swain , the IIC of Derabish Police Station When contacted the arrested septuagenarian confessed to the crime and informed that in a fit of rage he has committed such crime as he failed to bear the filthy language of his elder son and daughter-in-law after feud erupted over the shifting of an electric meter reading box . According to the arrested Panu Behera, He has two sons .After the demise of his first wife, he tied knot with Bimbala Behera. . Both of his sons were living separately . He and his second wife were living with his younger son ,Narayan Behera .most of the time , his elder son Chakradhar and his spouse allegedly made feud with him . On Friday , his elder son ,Chakradhar, allegedly tried to shift the electric current meter reading box to his house ,which was fixed .at the house of his younger son Narayan. He allegedly protested the move of his elder son as his younger son was not present in the house . Being irate over the fact , his elder son started altercation with him by using filthy language . “Bering failed to bear the nasty words used by my elder son to me , I ,in a fit of rage, allegedly attacked my elder son with a chopper. But he managed to escape from the house . Later, my daughter-in-law allegedly misbehaved me and abused me . Failed to bear the filthy words of Rina , I lost my anger and started attacking her with a chopper . Both husband and wife sustained multiple injuires and fled from the house . Later, on Friday I went with the chopper to Police station and informed the matter before the IIC of Derabish”,added Panu Behera, the arrested oldman.

In the day today society ,most of the time it has been seen  that a woman has become a subject of torture, both mentally, physically and psychologically , on the hands of  her spouse and  in-laws ,but it is rare that a hubby has fallen prey in the hand of his spouse and to put an end to the trouble he goes for police aid  . Such a case has recently come to the fore in the coastal Kendrapada District where a hubby being tortured mentally and physically allegedly lodged an FIR against his spouse in the police station  and police later acting on the FIR arrested the divorced woman and court sent her to jail custody .

The matter has come to the fore on Saturday where a minority community person, Sheikh Amiruddin ,a resident of Jaipura, allegedly lodged an FIR against his divorced spouse, Ansara Begum, at Kendrapada Town police station alleging that he was subjected to torture by his spouse ,despite the fact that he has given talaq to her . Amiruddin also urged in the petition to look into his matter and to save him from the torture made by his divorced wife, informed Ramesh Sethy , the IIC of Kendrapada Town Police Station.

According to Sethy ,as per the police investigation it has found that Amiruddin tied knot with Ansara Begum some years back and they later became the parents of two children . But his spouse allegedly used to create disturbance in the family most of the time  without any reason and also assaulted physically to him . As Anasari Begum allegedly used to start  quarrel with  her  husband and  tortured her physically .Amirrudin in past tried his best to change his  spouse’s nature by requesting umpteen times  to leave up the quarrel habit, but when his spouse failed to change her nature ,being deprived to get any ultimatum , he allegedly filed petition in the court to give   talaq to Ansari .And later both the married couple gave talaq to each other and stayed separately .

But since last  some days , Anasari umpteen times started visiting  to his house and quarreled with him by assaulting him.Being failed to bear the torture from his spouse despite the fact that he has given talaq , he lodged an FIR in the police station on Saturday, informed Amiruddin before the police  

Later , acting on the FIR  of the victim husband ,police conducted inquiry and arrested Ansari Begum, the divorced wife of Amiruddin The woman on Saturday produced before the SDJM court of Kendrapada under Section 448,293,323 and 506 0f IPC ,where the court rejected the bail petition of the arrested woman and remanded her to jail custody, added the IIC of Kendrapada town police station .