Illegal sand mining leading to beach erosions in Puri coast- expert

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

Puri, Oct 18 (UNI) The destruction of natural sand dunes and illegal sand mining on the southern side of the Puri coast have led to beach erosion in this pilgrim city, experts from National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) of Goa observed.

The experts who studied the recent beach erosion in the Puri coast, had expressed shock over the depleting beach conditions and attributed the reason to gross violation of coastal regulation zone norms.

Their report received by the Beach Protection Council(BPC) claimed that the tidal waves were lashing the shoreline and advancing towards the land mass because of destruction of natural sand dunes and illegal sand mining on the southern side of the Puri coast.

The report pointed out a large scale construction activities on the sand dunes and in the inter tidal zones in the Sipasarubali and Baliapanda mouzas was a clear violation of CRZ norms.

Besides, apart the experts observed that construction of two big hotels was allowed near the confluence point of the Mangala river violating all environmental norms.

NIO experts Dr B Pravakar Rao and A S Subramaniam had visited the Puri coast in August last to assess the erosion in the Puri beach in response to the request by BPC president Jagannath Bastia.

Chennai based institute for ocean management Director R Ramesh had also presented his report to the state environment department after inspecting the Puri and Konark beach.

His findings stated that the mushrooming of illegal construction of hotels and other commercial buildings besides construction of a new road in the prohibited area of the Puri beach were responsible for the beach erosion.

Earlier the Union ministry of environment and forest department had submitted a list of constructions built along the Puri coast violating the environmental norms to the state government and directed cancellation of the plan and construction.

UNI

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X