CUTTACK: The Orissa high court has directed the state government to submit by July 27 a report giving details of the criminal cases registered against the illegal prawn farm operators in both Chilika and Bhitarkanika. The HC expected the office of the advocate general to present before it a separate report on the number of complaints filed and provisions under which those FIRs have been registered against the offenders in a chronological order from January 2021 onwards.
As part of adjudication of a
PIL
for the restoration of the ecology of Chilika and Bhitarkanika on Tuesday, the HC was taking stock of the progress of removal of illegal prawn gheries from the two wetlands.
In a report amicus curiae
Mohit Agarwal
said, "To save Chilika and Bhitarkanika, it is necessary to lodge criminal
prosecutions so that the encroachments and pollution activities don't recur again and again because once the diversity of the wetlands is destroyed, it cannot be reclaimed". The two-judge bench of Chief Justice
S Muralidhar
and Justice S K Panigrahi emphasised the need for prompt corrective action by all state authorities acting in close co-operation.
The Bench said, "the collectors of
Puri
,
Ganjam
,
Kendrapara
and
Khurda
will by the next date file updated status reports by way of affidavits on the action taken to remove the illegal prawn gheries in their respective districts.""The report of the collector, Khurda district, will specifically address the issues raised by the learned amicus curiae in the report submitted by him today on the existence of such illegal prawn gheries by way of encroachment both within and on the fringes of the
Chilika lake
," the Bench further specified in its June 22 order, a copy of which was available on Thursday.
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