HC lens on pleas against bid to protect Chilika, Bhitarkanika

Cuttack: The Orissa high court has decided not to entertain petitions challenging orders issued by state authorities to implement the court’s direction on protection of bio-diversity and ecology of Chilika lake and Bhitarkanika mangroves.
Accordingly, the HC disposed of as many as 36 intervention petitions which were filed “raising individual grievances”.
“We make it clear that no intervention application assailing an action under the provisions of the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act, 2005, and the Coastal Aquaculture Rules, 2005, shall be entertained in the present proceeding which is in the nature of PIL, if the same relates to an individual’s personal grievance,” the two-judge bench of Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice M S Raman clarified.
According to the order issued by the HC on May 20, most of the intervention petitions were regarding orders issued by authorities in the nature of demolition of illegal structures and earthen gheries along with the eviction of illegal brackish water shrimps/prawn farms/ponds and other fishery ponds from the periphery of Chilika lake. The HC had suo motu registered the PIL on the threat to ecology of the two wetlands, Chilika and Bhittarkanika, in 2017 following orders of the Supreme Court. The bench has fixed June 25 as the next date for taking stock of the progress of finalisation of the comprehensive policy on fishing in Chilika.