Forest dept ire over trip to sunken ship

Statesman News Service

KENDRAPARA, Jan. 2: The state forest department has launched an inquiry into the scuba diving exploration of a sunken ship off Hukitola Coast on the ground that the exploration was carried out without the mandatory departmental sanction.

The scuba diver, Mr Sabir Bux, had made unlawful entry into the prohibited Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary. “The coastal waters within the marine sanctuary are now out of bounds for such exercise because it’s the peak breeding season of Olive Ridley turtles,” said divisional forest officer, Rajnagar Mangroves (Wildlife) Forest Division, Mr Prassana Kumar Behera.

“The incident is being departmentally probed into. On the basis of probe’s findings, cases would be booked against the intruders under Section-27 of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972,” he added.
To unravel the mystery of a sunken ship, Mr Bux had, on 31 December, embarked on a mission to explore the 200 feet-long ship lying stranded near Hulitola off Bay of Bengal coast since more than a century.
Mr Bux holds both international diving license and a rescue diver card issued by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors.

The sunken ship continues to arouse awe and wonder. International tourists often prefer visiting the mid-sea spot where the ship had met its watery grave in 1875. The sunken ship finds mention in Memoirs of a Bengal civilian ~ the biographic account of John Beams, who served as the collector of Balasore and Cuttack from 1869 to 1878.

via The Statesman.