The Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) has accused the Orissa government of not asking Essar Steel Orissa Ltd to stop dredging sand from the bed of River Mahanadi near Paradip in complete violation of the Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) Notification, 2011 and Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.

ESOL is setting up a steel pellet factory with an annual production capacity of 6 million tonnes along with a captive power plant of 225 mw at a project cost of 10,721 crore over a total land area of 1,925 acres. For the last two years, ESOL has been dredging sand from the bed of River Mahanadi near Paradip

Though ESOL obtained environmental clearance on May 29, 2008, there is no CRZ clearance which is mandatory since the area comes under CRZ zone of the Mahanadi River. A part of the plant site is CRZ area and also forest areas, WSO secretary Biswajit Mohanty told ET on Thursday.

Mohanty said the state government is fully aware that CRZ clearance is mandatory. Even at a high-level review meeting held on January 11, 2010, the state steel and mines secretary directed the company to seek CRZ clearance. Till now, an estimated 18,00,000 cum of sand has been excavated to fill up the site for the company, he added. Mohanty further said that the company violated the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 by illegally doing work since 2008, on non-forest land.