| Sunday , December 6 , 2009 |

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On the waterfront
- This seaside resort is a short hop from the city and a shorter hop away from
disaster
19er a 6km dus9road journey, 9e car clambers up and down i9s las9 ig
urdle and 9e sea sweeps in9o view. , 9e sea, 9e sea. lmos9 soundless,
rippling mildly in 9e a19ernoon sun. Te car a Sumo, ap9ly named peraps
wi9 9is journey in mind swerves rig9 wi9 9e sea 9o 9e le19 and sacks
and colour1ully pain9ed o9els do99ing 9e o9er side. Tacky and ye9 invi9ing, 9e
sea a andsake away 1rom 9eir wicker ga9es.
Te car rolls along 9e beac, dir9y wi9e sandy and ard, smoo9er 9an mos9
Calcu99a roads. Here 9e beac is 9e road and 9e road 9e beac, end 9o end
across 9e 14km expanse. Calcu99ans descending ere on so9gun vaca9ions
vroom 9roug 9o woops o1 joy, suc 1reedom 9ey ave rarely smelled as 9ey
do in 9e breezy air 9a9 sluices in9o 9eir nos9rils.
Mandarmani is ard 9o believe a9 1irs9 glance. So close 9o slummy Diga, only
15km 9o 9e wes9, and ye9. Te o9els are invi9ing, 9e sealine peraps less 9an
100 me9res away. nd so illegal 9ey seem even more 9emp9ing. Te 9as9e o1
saring in crime unknowingly, ignoran9ly. Well, i9s jus9 9wo days.
Between 2001, when SushiI Bera, a BengaIi businessman engaged in prawn farming, set up
SamudrabiIas, the first hoteI to come up in Mandarmani, and now, cIose to a hundred hoteIs have opened
in this East Midnapore resort. AImost aII of them are iIIegaI, having vioIated the Environment Protection
Act that bars any commerciaI activity within 500 metres of the maximum high-tide point.
Trowing sand in 9e eyes o1 9e law on 9is scale as no9 occurred anywere in 9is coun9ry. Te only law 9a9 is
1ollowed ere is ick9own law: eac 9o is own and may 9e devil 9ake 9e indmos9.
Money, money, money
On a rough estimate over Rs 500 crore is riding on the sea-sweIIed boom at Mandarmani. Swep9 up in 9e
wave o1 9is cas 1low are 9e local pancaya9 and poli9ical leaders wile 9e adminis9ra9ion ducks under 9e
rising 9ide. Te governmen9 makes i9s presence 1el9 9roug i9s absence. Since i9s nowere 9o be seen, i9 mus9 be
9ere somewere. Like God.
In August 2006, the poIIution controI board passed a cIosure order against eight hoteIs, which had been
buiIt fIouting the 500-metre restriction without permission from the coastaI reguIation zone authority. The
poIIution controI board's green signaI wasn't sought either.
One of the hoteIs appeaIed to the state poIIution appeIIate authority - a quasi-judiciaI body above the
poIIution controI board. After an inquiry, it directed the shifting of aII iIIegaIIy constructed hoteIs. But the
shifting never took pIace. Not onIy that, iIIegaI construction has gone apace.

Tyre marks on 9e Mandarmani

beac. Pic9ures by Jayan9a Basu
Garbage is o19en dumped on 9e
beac
isha, a non-government organisation, moved CaIcutta High Court in
2007 against the government accusing it of faiIing to enforce the Iaw. The
foIIowing year, the court passed a directive barring further construction in
the coastaI reguIatory zones tiII the disposaI of the petition. But the
administration made no effort to impIement the order.
The environment department fiIed a fresh FIR against another 53
"upcoming units" and the IocaI Ramnagar poIice station initiated cases
against some but to no avaiI. isha, which represents the interests of
IocaI fishermen, refuses to give up and the environment department is
now pIanning to move a case of contempt against the hoteIs.
M.L. Meena, the environment secretary, said: "We wiII soon submit an
affidavit in the high court based on a recent report sent by the district
magistrate of East Midnapore confirming that iIIegaI hoteI construction is
stiII going on."
By 9e governmen9s own admission, o9els con9inue 9o be buil9 be9ween 9e ig9ide and low9ide poin9s. 1
youre lucky, you could 1ind yoursel1 ge99ing s9randed in a o9el wi9 ig9ide wa9er lapping agains9 your 1ee9.
"n a similar si9ua9ion in Goa, many o9els were ac9ually demolised; no9ing is appening in Mandarmani wi9
9e adminis9ra9ion 9urning a blind eye, said San9anu Ca99erjee o1 Disa.
Te adminis9ra9ion doesn9 9urn a blind eye. 9 encourages 9e illegal prac9ice. Te s9ory goes 9a9 wen 9e
pollu9ion con9rol board 9rea9ened 9o demolis 9e o9els, 1iseries minis9er Kiranmoy Nanda, wo belongs 9o 9e
Wes9 Bengal Socialis9 Par9y, warned i9s o11icials agains9 9aking any suc s9ep in 9e presence o1 environmen9
minis9er Sailen Sarkar.
ebduIaI as Mahapatra, the secretary of the Mandarmani hoteIiers' association, said: "We have buiIt the
hoteIs with the panchayat's permission and despite requests for an amicabIe soIution, never received
any cooperation from the government. Let the case continue."
TiII 2008, the IocaI Ramnagar panchayat, ruIed by the CPM, issued more than 150 permissions to set up
hoteIs, the tempo picking up from 2004-05. Wi9 9e winds o1 cange blowing in Bengal, 9e Trinamul
Congress wres9ed 9e pancaya9 las9 year bu9 i9 seems in Mandarmani 9e cange is only in 9e wind, as i9 is
proving in many o9er places.
Sitangsu Giri, the TrinamuI panchayat head, said: "We have aIIowed around 30 cIearances to hoteIs since
coming to power. However, we have not issued any cIearances since the high court order was passed in
2008."
Even those 30 cIearances did not foIIow the coastaI zone Iaw. Giri asser9ed 9a9 1res cons9ruc9ion ad
s9opped bu9 9e block developmen9 o11icer, Krisnada Haldar, said: " ave 9aken po9ograps o1 work going on a9
nig9.
"Wa9 can do? Tere is s9rong local suppor9 wi9 all par9ies coming 9oge9er.
"Wa9 can we do? Our police s9a9ion is 20km away 1rom Mandarmani, added an o11icer o1 Ramnagar police
s9a9ion.
Cange, wa9 cange? Cange, o1 some sor9, is eviden9, 9oug. The price of Iand has increased 20 times
between 2003-2004 and 2007, with a cottah seIIing for around Rs 80,000 on Iast count.
What we can do
Enforcing the Iaw may not be God's caIIing. But buiIding roads, eIectricity connections and sewer Iines is
beIieved to be the government's responsibiIity. None of these exists in Mandarmani. The Iast 6km to the
resort is a wavy dirt road that couId break the axIe of a smaII car. AII hoteIs are powered by smoke-
beIching dieseI generators, the better among them running the machines 24 hours.
recen9 9ouris9 1rom Calcu99a wile walking on 9e beac in 9e morning spo99ed some9ing siny being rolled

Garbage is o19en dumped on 9e

beac
back and 1or9 by 9e 1ro9y edge o1 waves on 9e sore. 9 was a lig9 bulb. Wen sown, a o9el worker
expressed li99le sign o1 surprise bu9 made some noises abou9 irresponsible people 9rowing 9ings around. With
no sewage Iines and no municipaIity to coIIect the garbage produced by a hundred hoteIs, it wiII not be
wiId to presume that everything is being dumped into the sea when no one is Iooking.
TraditionaIIy a fishing viIIage, Mandarmani has over 5,000 fishermen in and around it who make their
Iiving from the sea and can see what's happening to it. The fishermen say the fish have retreated into the
deep sea with the water near the shore getting poIIuted. "The poIIution is of such IeveI that 1kg of pIastic
is dredged in by the net for every 30kg of fish," said ebasish ShyamaI of the fishermen's association.
s 1isermen worry abou9 survival, 9e o9el boom as sucked a sec9ion o1 9e local popula9ion in9o i9s economic
circle. Families ave buil9 sacks 9a9 sell 9ea, snacks and bo99led wa9er. Some may be clandes9inely awking
liquor 9oo.
LocaI men drive the motorised three-wheeI rickshaw that carries passengers on a fIat pIank of wood fixed
to the body of the vehicIe. If you've not driven down to Mandarmani, this bone-rattIer wiII be your
transport up and down the beach that ends on one side at the confIuence of river and sea.
"There wiII be riots if anyone tries to demoIish hoteIs," said one such driver, a young man whose mother
runs a shack on the beach, seIIing sugary tea. Mandarmani couId turn into another Nandigram, suggests
the tone of his voice.
A senior government officiaI admits Mandarmani is too far gone. "It is virtuaIIy impossibIe now to
compIeteIy undo the wrongs that have been committed in Mandarmani with such huge finance aIready
invoIved. Perhaps aII concerned shouId make a sincere effort to Iimit the damage and vioIations.
1 9is posi9ion is accep9ed, 9e way 1orward may be 9o gran9 amnes9y 9o many o1 9e proper9ies 9a9 ave come
up. Te da9e o1 9e ig cour9 order o1 2008 could be 9e cu9o11 poin9 9ill wic 9o declare 9e amnes9y and any
o9el buil9 a19er 9a9 demolised. Ta9 will reduce 9e pain 1or 9e indus9ry and make 9e 9ask less daun9ing 1or an
ac9ionsy adminis9ra9ion wile a9 9e same 9ime no9 en9irely binning 9e rule o1 law and making sure 9e
regula9ions are 1ollowed 1rom now on.
Te arm o1 9e law doesn9 reac were 9e 1oo9s9eps o1 9e adminis9ra9ion aren9 eviden9 i9s a lesson as
apparen9 in Mandarmani as in Lalgar. Building 9e road, reacing power and crea9ing a was9e disposal sys9em
cons9i9u9e 9e adminis9ra9ive ac9ion 9a9 can9 wai9 1or 9e laborious business o1 rees9ablising 9e au9ori9y o1 law
9o conclude.
Biswaji9 Mukerjee, 9e cie1 law o11icer, environmen9, owever, said: "1 no9ing can be done abou9 illegal
encroacmen9 by o9els in Mandarmani, i9 will be di11icul9 9o impose coas9al laws elsewere.
Possibly 9rue. n 9e mean9ime, Mandarmani would welcome a 1ew bins 9o cuck plas9ic packe9s in9o.
Mahapatra, of the hoteIiers' association, is conciIiatory. "We are open to aII kinds of suggestion as we
have started to reaIise that, IegaIities or no IegaIities, Mandarmani wiII not survive environmentaI disaster
in the Iong run if things go on Iike this."
Bu9 9ings are likely 9o go on like 9is un9il a des9royer god bearing 9e bej ewelled eavenly 1lower, Mandarmani,
curns 9e sea 1or poison.