A prawn farm near Bhitarkanika. Telegraph picture

Paradip, Nov. 29: Bhitarkanika National Park authorities have liberated about nearly 250 acres from unauthorised occupation of prawn farmers.

In a two-day operation, the encroached patches in the Sanatubi protected forest area were made encroachment free, and the illegal prawn gheries were demolished. The state forest department has registered case against owner of the gheries under the Forest Conservation Act, Wildlife Protection Act and the Orissa Forest Act.

Search is on to nab the absconding offender, said a forest official.

“The reclaimed patches have immediately been taken up for mangrove regeneration programme, so that prawn farmers cannot reoccupy the area,” he said.

“The department has undertaken a drive to demolish the prawn dykes that have unlawfully sprouted up in the protected forest areas. After the areas are cleared, mangroves are going to regenerated on a war footing on those denuded patches,” said officer of the Rajnagar mangrove (wildlife) forest division Kedar Kumar Swain.

Since the past two years, the department has succeeded in regenerating mangrove species on about 1,000 hectares of the denuded area. These areas, once ravaged by prawn farming, are now having a luxuriant look of lush-green mangrove species.

Certain patches of the protected forest areas at Hetamundia, Saralikuda, Sanatubi and Jogidhanakuda are still under unauthorised occupation of squatters. The areas, now under prawn cultivation, will be freed from squatting and taken up under the mangrove regeneration scheme. The state forest department is ready with funds sanctioned under the Management Action Plan for Mangroves and the Integrated Coast Zone Management Plan for mangrove regeneration, said Swain.

The scheme will be extended to other deforested areas in phased manner, and this would go a long way in arresting the encroached mangrove cover in the Mahanadi deltaic region of the national park, he said.

Conceding the fact that similar exercise undertaken in the past had not been entirely successful in checking the mangrove degradation, he said the eviction drive was being launched in a well-planned manner this time.

A task force consisting of senior and experienced forest protection officials has been formed. Besides, public awareness is being generated on the mangrove protection and residents of the nearby villagers are beginning to realise that mangrove is a time-tested natural barrier against tidal surge and cyclones, said the officer.