600 Acres of Illegal Prawn Enclosures Cleared in Chilika

Puri: In a major push to reclaim Chilika Lake’s water bodies from unauthorised commercial activities, the Puri district administration has cleared illegal prawn enclosures covering around 600 acres in the outer Chilika area of Krushnaprasad tehsil.

The operation was carried out by a joint team under the Krushnaprasad revenue circle as part of the administration’s ongoing ‘Gheri-Mukta Chilika’ campaign. The drive is aimed at dismantling illegal gher­is erected by encroachers for prawn farming and other commercial purposes.

The enclosures had been created by cordoning off stretches of the water body with bamboo poles, nets and other materials. The teams removed these structures during the operation, while the bamboo and nets seized from the site were destroyed on the spot.

Police were deployed in large numbers to maintain law and order and ensure that the removal operation was carried out without any untoward incident.

The administration said the clearance operation would not be a one-time exercise. Further drives will be undertaken in the coming days to identify and remove illegal enclosures from different parts of the lake.

The ‘Gheri-Mukta Chilika’ initiative is intended to restore encroached water bodies and help preserve the lake’s natural ecosystem by freeing its waters from unauthorised enclosures.