Drive to remove illegal prawn 'gheries' in Chilika

A new drive has been launched to remove illegal prawn 'gheries' to clean the Chilika, the biggest brackish-water lagoon in Asia.
The five-day drive by the Chilika Development Authority and the Ganjam district association was launched on Friday with the help of police, Chilika wildlife division, marine and inland fisheries departments and local fishery owners, officials said.
On the first day of the drive, the team destroyed illegal gheries (specially erected enclosures) near Pathara and Langaleswar under Khallikote Tehsil in the district.
The number of 'gheries' removed and the area of the lake cleaned up would be known only after completion of the drive, Sub-Collector (Chhatrapur) Sudhakar Sabara said.

At least two platoons (around 65 personnel) of police were deployed to assist the drive while CDA provided boats. The 1,100 sq km lake is spread over the three districts of Ganjam, Puri and Khurda.
Prawn mafia set up illegal 'gheries' on the lake. Even though the district administrations often demolish these, they construct them again.
In June, 53 illegal 'gheries' had been removed and 5,962 acres of the lake cleaned. Besides, 6,440 nets and more than 20,800 bamboos had been destroyed during the drive, CDA sources said.