Cuttack, July 24: The process to evict encroachers from riverbeds and riverbanks of the Mahanadi and the Kathjodi has begun.

Mahanadi south division of the state water resources department cracked the whip on encroachers after the traffic management committee, which has the police commissioner at the helm, pressed for immediate action along a 2km stretch from Matamatha to Jobra.

The committee had expressed concern as the riverbeds and riverbanks of these two rivers were being encroached upon and used as dumping ground.

The Mahanadi south division has sought police assistance to carry out the eviction drive. In the first phase, shanties, hutments and temporary shops that have come up on the Mahanadi bank along the Ring Road will be demolished.

"Initially, encroachments will be cleared on the stretch from Matamatha to Jobra," said Mahanadi south division's executive engineer Prasanta Kumar Das.

Environmental activist Biswajit Mohanty in a recent petition filed before the National Green Tribunal's east zone bench in Calcutta had stated that dumping of solid waste, including construction debris, and encroachment were posing a serious ecological threat to the Mahanadi and the Kathajodi. The petition accused the Cuttack Municipal Corporation of dumping waste on the riverbeds.

In an interim order on July 15, the tribunal asked the municipal corporation not to dump debris and waste on the riverbeds.

Municipal commissioner Gyana Das said: "Steps are being taken to comply with the order. Besides, I have already communicated to the Mahanadi south division offering all kinds of logistic support for eviction of encroachments from Matamatha to Jobra."

Mohanty had urged the tribunal to direct the water resources department, district administration and the municipal corporation to conduct a survey on the encroachments on the riverbed and banks of the two rivers.

In his petition, Mohanty stated that squatters had set up a huge residential colony on 150 acres of the Mahanadi riverbed in front of the All India Road complex in Cuttack.

Similarly, nearly 700 illegal huts have come up on the Kathajodi riverbed, which the encroachers are polluting.

The petition alleged that eateries, shops selling construction materials and squatters had encroached on an 8km stretch of the Kathajodi riverbed adjacent to the road linking Brajbiharipur.