Bhubaneswar, July 29: Waves crashing against the
shore is nothing new for the inhabitants of two of Orissa's
seaside tourist resorts---Puri and Gopalpur.
But what they have been witnessing for the last few
months has come as a shock.
"The sea has been behaving in an unnatural manner with
high waves lashing against the coast and damaging structures.
It seems the sea is inching inside", said Jagannath Bastia, an
environmental activist, who is a resident of the pilgrim town
since long.
While the sea waves have washed away nearly 500 metres of
a newly-constructed road on the outskirts of Puri, several
walls of hotels and a lighthouse at Gopalpur, down south in
Ganjam district, have collapsed under the pounding of the sea.
"I have been observing this phenomenon since August last
year, but no action has been initiated about it", Bastia, who
is the president of the Beach Protection Council of Orissa, told.
There have been reports about the Bay of Bengal eroding
the coast in the Satbhaya area of Kendrapara district and
swallowing up at least five of the seven coastal villages in a
cluster over the last few years.
However, this was something new in towns like Puri and
Gopalpur where the administration was monitoring the situation
with concern.
"We are watching the situation and a senior scientist
of the environment department would be studying the matter
before any step is taken in this regard", director of the
state's Environment Department," B.K. Patnaik said.
A study conducted recently by the National Institute of
Oceanography (NIO), Goa, had said that 23 per cent of India's
shoreline was getting eroded with four states---Maharashtra,
Orissa, Karnataka and Kerala being the worst affected.
In Orissa, over 100 km out of the state's 480-km
coastline was facing erosion while the problem was more acute
in Kerala, the study revealed.
It also said that the growth of long sand pits at the
Chilika Lagoon on the coast indicated littoral movement and
subsequent silt deposition.
The sediment transport rate at Gopalpur was also found to
be similar to that observed at Puri, the findings said.
Bastia said the Beach Protection Council of India had
drawn the attention of the state government and several known
institutes of the country to the problem of coastal erosion.
"But unfortunately, the state government is yet to wake
up to the situation," he said.
Bastia said that his organisation, besides writing to the
Forest and Environment Department, had requested NIO, Goa,
National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai, Indian
National Centre for Ocean Information Services, Hyderabad and
Institute for Ocean Management of Anna University, Chennai,
to study the phenomenon.
"We have also requested the government to invite experts
from these institutions to visit the Orissa coast and seek
their opinion in the matter", he said.
Besides, the state Coastal Zone Management Authority, of
which Bastia is a member, had demanded that an expert team
should be deputed to Puri and Gopalpur to study the erosion.
Within the last fortnight, the sea had devoured a large
portion of the road in Puri linking Baliapanda with
Sipasarubali--- where a tourist resort is proposed to be
developed--- causing panic among the inhabitants.
The road had been constructed recently even as new
buildings, apartment blocks and hotels were coming up in the
areas as the resort town was expanding.
Six new buildings are now facing direct threat from the
sea, the local people said.
"This road was washed away as it was built very close to
the sea", Bastia said while alleging that the Coastal
Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms had been violated in the process.
The Puri and Gopalpur beaches fell under CRZ category
two, he said.
Bastia, however, expressed grave concern about the
situation in Penthakata area of the town where a population of
about 20,000 fishermen were living virtually on the edge of
the sea.
Bureau Report