Drones to monitor illegal prawn ponds in Odisha wetlands

The Orissa High Court on Wednesday accepted a proposal submitted by Amicus Curiae Mohit Agarwal for the deployment of drones to monitor illegal prawn culture ponds or gherries encroaching wetlands in at least four coastal districts of the state.

"A division bench headed by Chief Justice S Muralidhar has accepted my proposal and has directed the state government to provide necessary infrastructure and funds to deploy drones for monitoring the illegal gherries, which are coming up even within 24 hours of their demolition by the authorities," Agarwal said.

The districts in which the drones will be deployed are Balasore, Kendrapara, Puri and Ganjam and the state government has been asked to submit an affidavit in this regard by the next date of hearing on December 5, Agarwal said.

The Amicus Curiae had made the proposal for the deployment of drones after it was revealed from different affidavits made by the district administrations that physical deployment of police force is unable to check the re-emergence of dismantled gherries.