Kendrapada: Residents of several seaside villages under Rajnagar block in Kendrapada district have intensified their agitation, demanding construction of a coastal highway to protect the region from sea erosion and natural disasters. Environmentalists have countered their agitation to save mangrove forests of Bhitarkanika and sea turtles of Gahirmatha.Hundreds of villagers held a protest meeting at Rajnagar on Tuesday, urging the state and central govts to restore the original alignment of the proposed coastal highway.According to protesters, the govt had initially proposed a 452-km coastal highway from Gopalpur in Odisha to Digha in West Bengal under the Bharatmala Pariyojana at an estimated cost of Rs 7,500 crore. The original plan included a 50-km stretch through Rajnagar block. However, the alignment was revised last month, excluding Rajnagar from the project.Senior BJD leader and former Rajnagar MLA Ansuman Mohanty alleged that the revised plan would leave the coastal villages vulnerable to cyclones, tsunamis, storms and sea erosion.Last month, the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) approved construction of the long-awaited coastal highway connecting Rameshwar and Paradip at an estimated cost of Rs 8,300.79 crore. The highway will pass through the coastal districts of Khurda, Puri, Kendrapada and Jagatsinghpur. However, while it will cover Mahakalapada block in Kendrapada district, it will bypass Rajnagar block.Protesters said nearly 10,000 people from the coastal gram panchayats of Satabhaya, Hatina, Kurunti and adjoining areas lost their lives in the devastating 1971 cyclone. They argued that a coastal highway would serve as a protective barrier against future cyclones and tidal surges.“We want the coastal highway to cover the entire coastal belt of Rajnagar to safeguard people from the advancing sea,” said Prativa Patra, chairperson of Rajnagar block.Dr Dharanidhar Rout, a resident of Rajnagar, alleged that BJP leaders had promised during the last election to build a coastal highway through the seaside villages, but the revised alignment excluded the region.Environmentalists, however, welcomed the govt’s decision, arguing that a highway through Rajnagar’s coastal belt could severely damage the fragile ecosystem.“If the highway is constructed through Rajnagar’s coastal pockets, it would threaten Bhitarkanika National Park, India’s second-largest mangrove forest, and Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary, the world’s largest nesting site of Olive Ridley sea turtles,” said Hemant Rout, environmentalist and secretary of Gahirmatha Marine Turtles and Mangrove Conservation Society.He noted that the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change declared 192 villages surrounding Bhitarkanika National Park as eco-sensitive zones (ESZs) in 2015 to conserve the ecologically fragile region.Veerendra Singh, regional officer of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Bhubaneswar, said the coastal highway was deliberately routed away from Rajnagar’s coastal belt to protect Bhitarkanika mangrove ecosystem and Olive Ridley turtle nesting beaches at Gahirmatha.
